Feature image credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Welcome to Azerbaijan! F1 and F2 are racing at the Baku City Circuit this weekend, so here are your quick session summaries from the first day of on-track running.
F2 | Free Practice
Did I wake up for the F2 practice at 7am? No. But Alex Dunne went fastest followed by Crawford, Beganovic, and Browning, and the two new faces on the grid- Martinus Stenshorne and Laurens Van Hoepen- finished P15 and P21 respectively. They have replaced Max Esterson and Sami Meguetounif at Trident. Arvid Lindblad had an early end to the session after having to take an escape road and bringing out the Virtual Safety Car.
F1 | Free Practice 1
George Russell was in the car for FP1 after missing media day because he wasn’t very well- and he definitely sounded a bit worse for wear on the radio this morning. Oscar Piastri had a mysterious car issue that put him out of most of the session, but whatever the problem was was fixed in time for him to come back out for some laps at the end of practice.
There was a big pause in action mid-way through, as there was a problem with the kerb at turn 16/17 that needed to be checked. Once the track was green again, Hamilton clipped a wall and damaged his front wing, Verstappen explored the run off area, Piastri and Albon got friendly with the barrier at turn 15, and your FP1 fastest five were Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Russell, and Albon.
F2 | Qualifying
Everybody is out for the start of Quali! In case you didn’t know, F2 Qualifying is a bit different to F1- it’s not broken into Q1, Q2, and Q3, they just have one 30 minute session to put in their best laps. F2 also have two races in a weekend, and for the first race (the Sprint Race) they have a reverse grid. That’s where they reverse the top 10 drivers, so P10 in Quali will start on pole for the Sprint.
Jak Crawford was the first driver to start a flying lap, putting in a 1:56.179 that was quickly beaten by a number of drivers. The red flag came out for Amaury Cordeel who hit the wall in turn 13 just after his Rodin teammate Alex Dunne went fastest.
With 17 minutes on the clock, Luke Browning matched Dunne’s time to the thousandth of the second. Lap times were getting beaten left and right as Dunne hit the wall in turn 8, but the damage was fixed in the garage with time for some final laps.
It was Victor Martins’ turn to hit the barriers next, this time bringing out the red flag with just 4 minutes left to go after his car was cleared.
Me taking a nap during this red flag:
The track finally went green again, let’s get these final flying laps in because Quali was supposed to finish half an hour ago and I’m hungry!
Aaaanddddd we’ve got another red flag. Roman Stanek and John Bennett had an incident, and that was that for Qualifying. Jak Crawford took pole position for the Feature, followed by Fornaroli, Mini, Martins, Dunne, and Browning. Reverse grid pole goes to Sebastian Montoya, although Stanek in P9 could be looking at a penalty that might throw the order off. As it stands at the end of Quali, Stenshorne is making a great start to his F2 career as he qualifies in P8. But six drivers will be making a trip to the Stewards office, so the order is subject to change (as it often is in F2!).
Edit: Stanek has been given a 5 place grid penalty for the Sprint Race and the Feature Race, and Joshua Duerksen has been given a 1 place grid penalty for the Sprint Race and the Feature Race for impeding.
F1 | Free Practice 2
FP2 showcased two of Baku’s most common mistakes- touching the barriers and having to use the run off areas. There were a few yellow flags caused by cars in the exit roads, including Ollie Bearman who needs to be on his best behaviour from now on. He is on 10 penalty points, if he gets 2 more he’ll get a race ban … very ironic considering he made his Haas debut in Baku last year when Kevin Magnussen got a race ban. You can take Kmag out of the sport but his spirit will live on!
At this point it might be easier to list which drivers didn’t bump any barriers today, but surprisingly both McLaren drivers caused themselves a bit of damage in FP2. McLaren also need to be on their best behaviour, as they could secure the Constructor’s Championship this weekend if they outscore Ferrari by 9 points. Ferrari aren’t going down without a fight though; Hamilton and Leclerc finished the second practice session in P1 and P2.
George Russell and Kimi Antonelli took P3 and P4, and Norris and Piastri ended up 10th and 12th- a very rare sight this year to not have a McLaren in the top 3.
I’m trying to move in silence but lowkey we’re so back!!! Whichever Ferrari fan (and I know it was one of you) paid an Etsy witch to curse McLaren, it might just be working.
Let’s all just take a minute to appreciate George’s special helmet this weekend:
And finally, most importantly, let’s also take a minute to appreciate the paddock cat that showed up yesterday. I would die for this cat:
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