#AzerbaijanGP FP1: @SChecoPerez quickest ahead of @CharlesLeclerc. #F1 #BakuGP

Perez Azerbaijan GP FP1 – Red Bull’s Sergio Perez topped the order in FP1 at the Azerbaijan GP ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and team-mate Max Verstappen who completed the top three.

 

 

Fresh from extending his contract with the Milton Keynes-outfit and his victory in Monte Carlo last time out, Mexico’s most successful Formula 1 driver set the morning pace with a 1:45.476, just four seconds slower than Leclerc’s pole from last year’s event.

 

Leclerc ran 0.127 seconds adrift of Perez, whilst defending world champion and points leader Verstappen was third, in-front of the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz who was fourth.

 

All 20 drivers emerged on the 6.003km Baku City Circuit within the opening two minutes of the hour-long session, the majority running the Pirelli C4 yellow-marked medium rubber.

 

The Red Bull pairing were the first to run under the 1:50 bracket, with Verstappen taking six minutes to move to the top on a 1:48.574 to sit nine-tenths clear of his team-mate.

 

But after seven minutes, yellow flags became a Virtual Safety Car to halt the running due to Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher suffering a bizarre car failure.

 

The German was forced to stop his Ferrari-powered VF-22 racer at turn 12 on what was his third tour.

 

The VF-22 was shown leaking pink fluid, fresh from it’s $1 million build after it’s crash in Monaco.

 

This was suspected to be radiator fluid, after his race engineer reported a “torque protection” trigger following a water-pressure spike. Schumacher was out for the rest of the session.

 

Verstappen was able to improve after the 12th-minute mark, lowering the benchmark to a 1:48.390, which were at the time, the fastest sectors one and two.

 

But Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was the pace-setter through the flat-out sector three, having been pulled by a strong slip-stream.

 

The Virtual Safety Car was deployed once more after only 15 minutes, this time for five minutes due to Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi parking his FW44 racer at turn five because of a power failure.

 

Like Schumacher, the Canadian was forced to miss out the rest of FP1.

 

Once again it was Verstappen who ran quickest when the track conditions cleared, the Dutchman improved to a 1:46.932 to pip Leclerc by seven-hundredths of a second.

 

Verstappen toured even faster on his RB18 the following time round, lowering his effort to a 1:46.477 to be half-a-second clear of title-rival Leclerc.

 

Perez jumped to second on the medium compound shortly after as both Ferrari’s remained with the C3 white side-walled harder tyre earlier on.

 

With 25 minutes left on the clock, Verstappen once more set the pace as the Dutchman became the first to go into the 1:45’s, gaining seven-tenths over team-mate Perez.

 

But then Perez came to the front with a third of opening practice to go, gaining massively in sector one and cut it well within the turn 15 outside wall to hit the 1:45.476 effort, which remained as the session’s best time.

 

This gave the Mexican a 0.127 gap over Leclerc in the classification, as the Ferrari returned to the harder rubber and neither Red Bull improved then with softs during the final ten minutes.

 

Verstappen’s 1:45.810 effort put him third, ahead of Sainz, one of the many to suffer porpoising issues on the long-straights, as the Spaniard set the fourth-quickest time.

 

But Verstappen’s session was somewhat hampered due to a DRS flapping problem, and then having adjusted his settings in regards to engine braking, spun at turn 15 when the Red Bull RB18’s rear went wide.

 

Alonso rounded out the top five, in-front of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamiltonwho complained of a distracting beep onboard his F1 W13 racer after enduring violent porpoising.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda split the Silver Arrows, with George Russell eighth in the other F1 W13 entry, whilst the other AT03 of Pierre Gasly took ninth in the order and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon completed the top ten.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris placed 11th, as Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel ended FP1 in 12th and 14th respectively with Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen splitting the pairing in 13th.

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Gunayu were 15th and 16th respectively and ahead of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who took 17th.

 

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo ended opening practice in a low-18th and in-front of the aforementioned Latifi and Schumacher who brought up the rear.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2022 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1126/azerbaijan/practice-1.html

 

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