Feature image credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Hellooooo! It is Saturday at the Baku City Circuit, and we’ve got F1 Practice, the F2 Sprint, and F1 Qualifying! Here are your quick session summaries (even though the sessions themselves were decidedly not quick. Spoiler alert: red flag central!).
F1 | Free Practice 3
It was a slow start to FP3, as per usual, as the drivers usually prioritise shorter runs in the final practice before Quali. A lot of drivers were complaining about the wind this morning, with a direct headwind in turn 1 and 2 affecting the balance of the car. Lando Norris said over the radio that his front wing felt “sketchy” … whatever that means. Not good for him, I don’t think- with 20 minutes on the clock Lando was sitting in P13, so he was definitely struggling a little bit.
Charles Leclerc was the fastest man on track for a lot of the session, but had a little bit of barrier trouble and asked his team to check the suspension on his Ferrari. Max Verstappen put six tenths over Leclerc with a 1:41.727.
Mercedes have had a quiet session; they didn’t come out of the garage until 25 minutes into the session, but apparently George is feeling better today which is good news! Williams, on the other hand, were showing an impressive amount of pace with Albon flying up to P2.
After the final soft tyre runs, your FP3 fastest five were Norris, Verstappen, Piastri, Hamilton, and Antonelli.
F2 | Sprint Race
Villagomez lined up on pole position for the F2 Sprint, but was quickly spun off in turn 1 with Beganovic leading the first lap. The safety car came out on lap 1 for Villagomez and Goethe, who was also spun at the start- Marti’s race was also ended, but he managed to get back to the pit lane to retire.
Newcomer Martinus Stenshorne had an outstanding start to the race, diving down the inside of Montoya to take second place before an unfortunate car issue put him out of the race and brought out another safety car. The rain started during the safety car period, and at the restart Dunne passed Browning for P3. A mistake from the Irishman then saw Browning back through to third, and the Brit went on to battle Montoya for P2- Montoya also then suffered with a car issue, dropping him down to P15.
Dino Beganovic was flying out in front, taking a controlled first F2 win over Browning and Dunne.
F1 | Qualifying
Is this F1 Quali or the Crash Olympics? Red flag for Albon in the wall, red flag for Hulkenberg in the wall, red flag for Colapinto in the wall … and that was just Q1. Esteban Ocon, also out in Q1, had a branch in his car. Right then. Joining them in the elimination zone was Pierre Gasly, who (*checks notes*) ended up in the run off area at turn 4 just moments before his teammate’s crash.
Aannddddd Q2 was red flagged for Ollie Bearman stopping on track after bumping the barriers. The Mercedes were going well on mediums, but two brief offs for Leclerc left him without a time on the board with five minutes to go. Despite the Ferrari’s pace, they did seem to be fighting the car on track. Leclerc made it into Q3, but Hamilton was not so lucky. Alonso, Hamilton, Bortoleto, Stroll, and Bearman were elimated in Q2.
Drivers started reporting rain as Q3 started and George Russell went off at turn 4. Ferrari’s day went from bad to worse when it was Leclerc’s turn to find the wall, causing another red flag as his car is cleared off the track. Carlos Sainz had the fastest lap- and if the rain continued, and the track lost grip … clearly Carlos and I were on the same wavelength as he radioed his team to ask them to start doing a rain dance.
As quickly as Q3 started again, it was red flagged. This time, Oscar Piastri, Championship leader, was in the wall. Does anybody remember how to drive an F1 car? Anybody? No new lap times were set, so Sainz was still on provisional pole with 3 minutes left on the clock.
Finally, we were in the last legs of Quali. Only enough time for one flying lap each, so they have to make it count.
Lando bumped the wall, Russell crossed the line, neither of them were able to beat Sainz’s lap time. Max Verstappen was the only man to get the job done and he took pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the first time in his career.
Carlos. Sainz. Front. Row.
I think I’ve died actually.
Liam Lawson will start from P3, with Kimi Antonelli closing out the second row and his Mercedes teammate in P5. McLaren have undoubtebly had a Qualifying to forget- Norris will start P7, and Piastri P9.
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