Red Bull Top Azerbaijan Friday Practice

Red Bull dominated Friday Practice for 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari as Sergio Perez set the quickest lap time.

Verstappen topped the morning session off the back of a dominant Monaco Grand Prix victory but it was his Mexican teammate, Perez who ultimately finished Friday Practice fastest overall with a FP2 topping 1m 42.115.

Ferrari however have shown that their Monaco form wasn’t a fluke as they kept themselves close to Red Bull with just 0.321s separating all four drivers across both teams, thus setting up a tasty battle for pole position on Saturday as Mercedes face a uphill fight after a difficult Friday.

Now here is a full roundup of Friday’s Formula One action in Baku.

 

FP1

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A quiet start to the session saw Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz set the initial pace with 1m 46.706, only to be eclipsed by teammate – Charles Leclerc with 1m 45.664 just minutes later.

There was a brief Virtual Safety Car in order to allow removal of debris with Hamilton soon afterwards going top with 1m 45.112 on soft tyres, immediately lowering the benchmark to a 1m 43.893 on his next lap which was bettered by McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo 17 minutes later with 1m 43.732.

Shortly after Hamilton’s quickest lap, Yuki Tsunoda brought out the yellow flags for three minutes as he struggled to create a ten-point reverse turn after running deep down the escape road at Turn Four, having clipped the wall on entry into the corner.

Ricciardo’s teammate – Lando Norris tried to respond to the Aussie’s flier but took too much power into Turn 16 and spun, to ruin what could of been the quickest lap at that stage, having gone fastest overall in the first two sectors.

Leclerc however kept his Ferrari on the road to go quickest moments later with 1m 43.227 which would only be bettered by Max Verstappen with a session topping 1m 43.184, as Sergio Perez finished fourth quickest following a slipstream qualifying simulation at Red Bull.

There were some hairy moments at the end as Nikita Mazepin hit the wall at exit of Turn 16 after getting a snap of oversteer on the exit, whilst Valtteri Bottas and Norris avoided colliding as both drivers spun around after running deep down the escape road at Turn Two.

At checkered flag, Verstappen headed Leclerc, Sainz, Perez, Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Hamilton, Norris, Fernando Alonso and Bottas.

Alonso along with Aston Martin duo of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel had set their best FP1 times on the medium tyre.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1m 43.184
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.043
3	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 0.337
4	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+ 0.446
5	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	+ 0.548
6	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	+ 0.573
7	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+ 0.709
8	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.812
9	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	+ 1.593
10	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	+ 1.707
11	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	+ 1.759
12	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	+ 1.908
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 2.050
14	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+ 2.200
15	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	+ 2.231
16	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 2.262
17	George Russell	Williams	+ 2.268
18	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	+ 2.590
19	Mick Schumacher	Haas	+ 3.715
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	+ 3.761

 

FP2

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Having spent FP1 getting up to speed on a dusty track, conditions seemed to have initially not improved as Bottas, Norris and Sebastian Vettel all went down escape roads, with Sainz setting the initial pace on 1m 43.162 just before Williams’ Nicholas Latifi came to a halt at Turn 15 with a temperature issue after running down the escape road.

Latifi’s stoppage caused a seven minute red flag and once the session resumed, teams opted to conduct their qualifying simulations, as Sainz headed Leclerc until Perez produced a session-topping 1m 42.115 just moments before Leclerc crashed into the barriers at Turn 15 and broke off his front wing on his second flier.

Hamilton meanwhile struggled throughout the session as he hit a high of seventh on his soft qualifying simulation run, as he ultimately finished the session 11th fastest overall, whilst Mercedes teammate – Bottas was only 16th quickest.

Up front, Perez led Verstappen and Sainz with 0.128s separating the trio ahead of Leclerc who was 0.321s off the Mexican, as Gasly, Alonso, Antonio Giovinazzi, Norris, Esteban Ocon and Tsunoda rounded out the top ten.

Race runs meanwhile encountered very little issues other than heavy degradation which could well point towards a two stop strategy depending on track temperatures come Sunday for the race.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	1m 42.115
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.101
3	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 0.128
4	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.321
5	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	+ 0.419
6	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	+ 0.578
7	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	+ 0.826
8	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.903
9	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 0.905
10	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+ 1.015
11	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+ 1.041
12	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	+ 1.105
13	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	+ 1.183
14	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1.697
15	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	+ 1.766
16	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	+ 2.069
17	George Russell	Williams	+ 2.442
18	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	+ 3.448
19	Mick Schumacher	Haas	+ 3.980
20	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	+ 4.868