#F1 #AzerbaijanGP FP3: @GeorgeRussell63 pips @CharlesLeclerc by 0.013s. #BakuGP
George Russell, #63, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team, F1 W15, Free Practice 3, Formula 1 Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2024, Baku City Circuit, Baku, Azerbaijan. Image credit to Clive Mason/Getty Images. Russell Azerbaijan GP FP3, 2024 Azerbaijan GP FP3, Azerbaijan GP FP3 Results, Baku GP FP3 Results, F1 Azerbaijan GP FP3.
Russell Azerbaijan GP FP3 – Mercedes’ George Russell pipped Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in a red flag-affected FP3 session at the Azerbaijan GP as McLaren pairing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri completed the top four.
Russell posted the time-topping benchmark of a 1:42.514 on the C5 red side-walled softer tyre and was a very narrow 0.013 seconds clear of Leclerc whilst Norris was a further 0.223 adrift of his fellow British-compatriot in third.
Leclerc showed good promise throughout the session and managed to hit the top of the pile after beating an impressive flyer from Piastri later in proceedings, but the Monegasque drivers’ lap-time was ousted by Russell’s effort.
Russell, who had his Friday running being hampered by a series of power-unit troubles, reported his Mercedes power-train sounded strange in the corners, and also struggled with his F1 W15 entry’s handling balance throughout much of the Free Practice 3 session.
In the earlier stages, only installation laps took place at the start, with no hot-laps completed in the opening ten minutes as a few spits of rain were in the air.
The session started to pick up when McLaren’s Norris prepared to begin his flying lap, but then Alpine’s Esteban Ocon stopped on track just before the quarter mark of the session.
This brought out the red flag and once the A524 was cleared, the session went green ten minutes later. With the early flyers in the 1:45’s bracket, the times were slower compared to yesterday’s Free Practice 2 session – on fresh soft compounds, Piastri posted the benchmark of a 1:45.476.
Championship leader Max Verstappen found a quarter of a second to jump into P1 but was relegated by Williams’ Alexander Albon who immediately scored a 1:44.371 to show the FW46’s pace.
Leclerc was running in-front of Albon during his second hot-lap, going nearly 0.7 seconds faster in sector one and found even more time in sector two.
This effort was halted by another red flag – which came after MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Oliver Bearman ran to deep into the first corner and attempted to abort his hot-lap, the young Briton could not do so quick enough and knocked his front-left wheel against the barrier.
A six minute recovery of the VF-24 ensured the session could continue with just over 20 minutes left, allowing Norris to post a 1:44.226 to shuffle the top of the classification.
Albon returned the favour, posting a purple sector two and gaining a tow from Russell’s Silver Arrow to go quickest for only five seconds, as Leclerc put in an effort, he was on course to set before Bearman’s shunt, a 1:43.455 flyer.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez shot to a 1:43.389 to demote Leclerc at the head of the leaderboard, but this was beaten by Piastri’s 1:42.749 – a 0.64 second advantage compared to the Melbournian.
Piastri’s effort came under threat from Perez and Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton, but Leclerc could overpower it by 0.185 seconds – before Russell moved to P1 in the classification.
Leclerc remained in-front of the McLaren pairing, as Norris found a 1:42.737 to go ahead of team-mate Piastri, whilst Verstappen’s late attempt at a slip-stream with team-mate Perez could not move the Dutchman above fifth.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz split the RB20 entries, having been impeded by Perez at turn 15 in the final ten minutes of the hour-long session.
Williams Racing duo Albon and Franco Colapinto were eighth and ninth respectively as the other Mercedes F1 W15 entry of Hamilton rounded out the top ten.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was 11th and ahead of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda who took 12th.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll ended final practice 13th and in-front of RB’s Daniel Ricciardo who placed 14th in the classification and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly who finished 15th in the order.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg took 16th as Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were 17th and 18th respectively.
The aforementioned Ocon and Bearman finished at the rear.
The impeding involving Perez and Sainz is currently under investigation by the stewards.
You can see the full Formula 1 Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2024 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2024/races/1245/azerbaijan/practice/3
#F1 #AzerbaijanGP FP2: @CharlesLeclerc pips @SChecoPerez by 0.006s. #BakuGP
#F1 #AzerbaijanGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen quickest as @CharlesLeclerc, #Colapinto crashes.
#F1 Qatar Airways #AzerbaijanGP 2024 Preview. #Formula1 #BakuGP
