Lando Norris topped the first session for the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix which was truncated due to a lengthy Red Flag period required to fix damaged kerbs.
Norris was followed by teammate Oscar Piastri in second as the latter suffered from a power unit problem early on in the session which meant he had to spend quite some time in the garage. He was lucky as the Red Flag came out around the same time he suffered the issue which meant he did not lose much time compared to the other drivers.
Carlos Sainz ran over the kerbs at Turn 17 quite hard with some rubber dislodged from the kerbs which ended up being a long repair job for the marshals.
Norris posted a 1:42.704 to go fastest while Piastri was 0.310s off the pace in second with Charles Leclerc third fastest in the Ferrari. 0.242s further down the road.
George Russell was fourth fastest in the Mercedes, 0.001s behind Leclerc as Alex Albon was fifth fastest in the Williams, 0.306s behind the Mercedes man.
The came the Red Bulls, but with Yuki Tsunoda leading Max Verstappen, sixth and seventh respectively. Tsunoda was over a second off the pace with Verstappen 0.052s behind him.
The four time Formula 1 Champion missed out on a final run on the Soft tyres at the end of the session after locking up at Turn 15.
Sainz was eighth in the second Williams with Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar ninth and tenth respectively. Lewis Hamilton was down in 13th after clipping the barriers at Turn 5 ending up with a puncture and a damaged front wing.
Buildup towards FP1
We head to Baku this weekend for the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix as we leave Europe behind with the Italian Grand Prix being the final European stop this season.
Once again, and despite McLaren's dominance, there is much to look forwards to this weekend in Baku especially after Verstappen's dominance last time F1 went racing in Monza two weeks ago.
The Dutchman and his team appear to have found some breakthrough which meant he won from pole at the Temple of Speed, but it remains to be seen whether that pace is genuine which we should find out in Baku over the coming three days of running.
McLaren are also in the spotlight following their team orders fiasco from Monza. Will Piastri and Norris remains on good terms? Who will be the first of the pair to defy team orders? Will they keep it clean on track?
It is a shame that McLaren will be watched for such controversial topics on a weekend they can clinch the 2025 F1 Constructors' Championship, their second in a row and their tenth in Woking's illustrious history in the sport.
Then we have Ferrari who, with Leclerc, have dominated qualifying around the streets of Baku for the past four seasons. Can the Monegasque replicate such heroics this weekend?
In terms of tyres, Pirelli have brought their softest range of compounds this weekend with the C6 making a return. We have the C4 (Hard), C5 (Medium), and the C6 (Soft.
In terms of car upgrades, the teams did not bring much this weekend, except for track related bits and pieces like Ferrari's revised front brake duct cooling exits.
Red Bull Racing have re-profiled inboard wing assembly on their rear suspension while Mercedes have a revised front wing.
Racing Bulls have updated geometry of the front and rear brake duct.
FP1 Session Highlights
The session started in dry conditions with track temperatures at 32 degrees Celsius with air temperature at 25 degrees.
The drivers did not waste any time and were all soon out on track as the green light at the end of the pitlane was illuminated.
Norris was soon called into the pits as soon as he was out as the team wanted to "remove something". Then Piastri seemed to hit trouble as his engineer radioed: "Recharge on, back off. Avoid full load. Keep low revs."
The Australian then pitted and the McLaren mechanics set out working on his car.
Five minutes into the session, Gabriel Bortoleto brought out the Yellow Flag as he went deep into the runoff area of Turn 3 and had to reverse back on track.
Then Russell reported that he smelled something burning, asking his team to check the brakes. Replay showed his Mercedes bouncing quite hard on the straights... Porpoising again?
15 minutes into the session, Sainz came too close to tagging the wall at Turn 15, but then the Red Flag came out to clear some debris on track at Turn 16.
The session was restarted with almost 40 minutes remaining on the clock, but this time the drivers took their time before heading out on track. A Yellow Flag was out.
Replay showed that Sainz was probably the reason for the Red flag.
Meanwhile, Piastri was out of his car as the mechanics continued working on his car investigating a power unit issue on the #81 car.
A strange thing was happening, as the Yellow Flag remained out and the cars stayed in the pits with marshals still working on the kerbs at Turn 16.
One driver who benefitted from that was Piastri as he did not lose time relative to his rivals and was soon back in his car and fired it up.
Finally, action resumed with 20 minutes remaining from the session and again Bortoleto missed Turn 2 just as he exited the pits probably due to cold brakes.
Then Hamilton radioed that he clipped the wall, with his engineer informing him that he had a puncture. The Briton also added that he damaged his front wing.
The Yellow flag briefly came out as the seven-time F1 Champion limped back to the pits. TV footage showed that he lost his left front wing endplate.
Replay showed that the incident took place at Turn 5.
Albon then tagged the barriers at Turn 15 with his rear right tyre, but luckily got away with it. After that Verstappen went deep at the same corner, causing a brief Yellow Flag and then rejoined the track.
The Red Bull driver was on a fast lap on new Soft tyres. He reported that the car was coming off the ground under braking.
Both Hadjar and Ocon brought out Yellow Flags towards the end of the session having locked up and ended up in the runoff areas of Turns 3 and 15 respectively.
Azerbaijan GP FP1 Classification
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