Hamilton Tops Friday Practice at 2025 Azerbaijan GP

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton topped Friday Practice for 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. 

McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri topped FP1 but the pair made mistakes in FP2 which allowed Hamilton to top the day’s running with the overall quickest lap time.

FP1 however was marred by a lengthy red flag due to a loose kerb at Turn 16 mid-session which was resolved within the session.

 

FP1

Alpine’s Franco Colapinto was first out on track but it was Italian GP’s race winner, Max Verstappen who set the initial pace on the soft tyre with 1m 46.121 in the sixth minute, before Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar displaced him with 1m 45.904 just two minutes later.

Norris however posted 1m 44.274 to set the outright pace on his first flier and Verstappen fell 0.096 seconds shy on his second flier, but Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc displaced the Dutchman to go 0.040s shy before Norris lowered the benchmark to 1m 43.747 after he was briefly displaced by Mercedes’ George Russell.

The red flags however came out in the 14th minute after the kerb came loose off the tarmac at Turn 16 and took 26 minutes to resolve, before the grid scurried out with 20 minutes left to maximise their track time.

Piastri however had missed much of the opening stint due to a power unit issue but the red flag minimised his lost running time compared to the rest of the grid.

Nobody however could catch Norris who topped the session with 1m 42.704 as Piastri managed to snatch the second-fastest lap time in the closing minutes, albeit 0.310s down on his teammate and title rival.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1m 42.704
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 0.310
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.552
4	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.553
5	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 0.859
6	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull	+ 1.034
7	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 1.086
8	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+ 1.155
9	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+ 1.199
10	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls	+ 1.271
11	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+ 1.281
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	+ 1.282
13	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+ 1.383
14	Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber	+ 1.383
15	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 1.435
16	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 1.447
17	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1.625
18	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 1.735
19	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 2.595
20	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 2.714

 

FP2

Hulkenberg was first out of the pit lane on medium tyres and set 1m 44.218 as the initial benchmark but Piastri and Verstappen lowered the benchmark by nearly a second, before the German set 1m 43.063 in the ninth minute on his second flier.

Russell then Bortoleto further lowered the benchmark tome on soft and medium tyres respectively, before Norris produced 1m 42.199 to go fastest in the 11th minute, albeit 0.008s quicker than Leclerc.

Leclerc however responded with 1m 41.786 four minutes on the quarter-of-a-hour mark to go quickest ahead of Hamilton by 0.152s, although Hamilton topped the opening stint five minutes later with 1m 41.543 on the medium tyre.

Hamilton eventually topped the session with 1m 41.293 on his second soft-tyre qualifying simulation ahead of Leclerc, after Norris and Piastri found themselves 10th and 12th respectively due to hitting the outside walls at Turns 4 and 15.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	1m 41.293
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.074
3	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.477
4	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+ 0.486
5	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 0.598
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.609
7	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+ 0.696
8	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 0.874
9	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 0.884
10	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.906
11	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+ 0.962
12	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 1.002
13	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls	+ 1.150
14	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull	+ 1.151
15	Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber	+ 1.268
16	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 1.381
17	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1.478
18	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	+ 1.527
19	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 1.674
20	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 2.029