Azerbaijan – Free Practice 1: Verstappen fastest, Pérez in the wall!

Formula 1 returns to Baku for the first Azerbaijan Grand Prix in history. Indeed, while the discipline made its debut in the Caucasian capital last year, the race was listed on the calendar as the European Grand Prix.

One thing is certain in any case, there will be a different winner this year than the one from last season. Indeed, it was Nico Rosberg who secured victory at the wheel of his Mercedes for the first edition of the race on the Baku city circuit.

The weather is set fair and the air temperature is around 30°C. The heat is expected to intensify throughout the weekend and rain is therefore not expected over the next three days.

The atmosphere is peculiar in the McLaren-Honda garages. The team already knows that its drivers will start from the back of the grid following the penalties received due to the engine failures encountered by Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne in Canada fifteen days ago.

The drivers have chosen Medium tires for their first installation lap. It should be noted that Pirelli has also made available, in addition to this compound, Soft and Super Soft tires, perhaps fearing excessive deterioration of its softest tires.

Romain Grosjean is the first to place his Haas at the top of the timesheet with a 1:52.952. He is quickly overtaken by Felipe Massa’s Williams, which records an impressive 1:47.797. After more than 20 minutes, only six drivers have registered their names on the leaderboard.

The track is still very slippery and quite a few drivers are experiencing wheel lock-ups. Valtteri Bottas spins off without apparent damage to his Mercedes.

Bottas goes for a spin
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His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, fitted with Soft tires, sets the fastest time of the session in 1:45.497. He is ahead of Sergio Pérez’s Force India and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. It is noteworthy that only the Toro Rosso drivers, Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat, are not credited with any time at mid-session.

It seems that the drivers didn’t really take advantage of the extra set of tires provided by Pirelli to chase the clock. Sebastian Vettel is only 8th, more than one and a half seconds off the best time; Kimi Räikkönen is over two seconds behind, and even Valtteri Bottas only managed to reach 9th position.

The last half-hour of the session is livelier and begins with Verstappen setting the fastest time, placing his Red Bull less than a tenth ahead of Hamilton. Unlucky in the recent races, the Dutchman nonetheless maintains the pressure and continues to regularly outpace his teammate Daniel Ricciardo on the clock. He leads the charge brilliantly, improving lap after lap, pushing Hamilton back by more than a second.

But the session is interrupted with a red flag 20 minutes before the end. Sergio Pérez violently went off at turn number 8, in the narrowest part of the circuit. The Mexican is not injured but seems very disappointed to have made this mistake. Especially since the Force India is performing particularly well on this track.

RED FLAG 🚩

PER hits the wall at the narrow section at Turn 8 and the session is halted while the track is cleared#AzerbaijanGP #F1Baku 🇦🇿 pic.twitter.com/gMJiWcZBLR

— Formula 1 (@F1) 23 juin 2017

The single-seater is cleared by the track marshals and the session resumes for the last 6 minutes, which won’t change much in the standings. The two Red Bulls, to everyone’s surprise, are the fastest of the morning. But the Ferraris and Mercedes clearly haven’t given their all during this FP1, and the second practice session scheduled for this afternoon should be more revealing of the contenders’ strengths.

The complete classification of FP1:

PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION (END OF FP1)

Confirmation of a successful opening session for @redbullracing at the #AzerbaijanGP 🇦🇿 pic.twitter.com/H1M84z2Ho1

— Formula 1 (@F1) 23 juin 2017