Azerbaijan Grand Prix Practice 1 Round-up

Practice 1 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix started off with some drama for the championship leaders. Lando Norris was to box to remove a yellow pito cover that was on a front sensor and camera. Oscar Piastri also had an issue with the engine which, at the time, was thought to be terminal for the championship leader but was fixed later in the session but he had lost a massive chunk of time in FP1.


Gabriel Bortoleto was the first of the day to find an escape road, going deep at turn 3 and completing a nice 360 to come back on track. Alex Albon had an issue with his left mirror as it came flying of down the start and finish straight and George Russell moments later, reporting a "burning smell" from his W16 which could have possibly been his brakes and further reported "serious bottoming" on tbe straights.

Carlos Sainz's Williams went sliding over the raised curb of turn 17 and a small piece of debris fell off and was stuck in and under the kerb which bought out a lengthy red flag. The debris was finally yanked out from underneath by a marshal and they had to spend more time ensuring the kerb was enforced down on the ground and to be deemed as safe to fly the green flag.


20 minutes remained of free practice 1 when the green flag finally arrived and Lando Norris was no wasting any time, setting a P1 time of a blistering 1.42.704 which was 1 second quicker than Verstappen had done in P2. Alex Albon clipped the wall at turn 16 and was not the last to test the limits in the day. Ferrari had a slower, yet decent FP1, Leclerc 5 and a half tenths off Norris with Hamilton slightly Further back.

Max Verstappen went down the escape road at turn 16, locking up just before and choosing safety over risk. Piastri finally exited his pit box and managed to haul his MCL39 to P2 but 3 tenths of the time of Norris. Hadjar and Ocon also found themselves off track at turn 3 and turn 16 respectively in the dying moments of the first practice session.

Lando Norris finished the morning top, followed by his hampered teammate Piastri in P2. Leclerc secured P3 with Russell close behind in P4 and Albon rounding out the top 5 for Williams - and good day for them with Sainz in P8. Tsunoda finished above Verstappen in P6 and P7 but without Max's adventure off,.that could have been the other way around.

This was the full result of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix free practice 1:





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