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Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP

Azerbaijan GP Friday practice

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Welcome to live coverage of first practice for this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Circuit cleaning is bound to be a big part of FP1. Fortunately, we've already had an F2 session to lift some of the dirt from the streets of Baku.
Green flag
Here we go then - FP1 begins.
Good news - lots of cars are heading straight out for installation laps.
Only Perez, Verstappen, Bottas and Hamilton are yet to appear on track.
There's a good mix of tyre compounds in use - all three available this weekend (ultrasoft, supersoft, soft) are being used for these early FP1 laps.
Radio Comms
Ricciardo reports "a bit of a power thing on pit exit". Red Bull understands that message, we don't.
Scott Mitchell
Renault has a fair bit of upgrade work to get through in this opening session: a new front wing, rear wing and bargeboards.

It's a bit of a hybrid package from the team: the rear wing and parts of the new front wing are Baku-specific to deal with the unique challenge of this street track with the ultra-long blast from Turn 16 to Turn 1 – via four flat-out kinks and the start-finish straight.

However, the bargeboards (if they work properly) will likely be used at other circuits with low/medium downforce requirements, like Montreal.
Edd Straw
Very green track at the moment, even when on an installation lap in the uphill Turn 12 left hander Raikkonen didn’t have the front end grip and had a big understeer moment.
As both Mercedes drivers leave the pits, we've now had all 20 cars appear for at least one lap.
Radio Comms
Bottas is warned "there may be some debris at Turn 2" because a slippery surface flag is out.
There is a small blue ring on the track. We can't really think of a better way to describe that.
Edd Straw
The tv footage doesn’t do justice to how steep the hill out of Turn 12 is as the track loops around the edge of the Old City.
Stopwatch
Bottas puts the first lap of the weekend on the board: 1m49.7s.
Edd Straw
Even with the weight on the back wheels at the exit of T12, Bottas is struggling a little for traction. Hamilton, coming through a few moments later, had to have a couple of bites at getting the nose in and couldn’t carry in the speed he wanted.
Hamilton crosses the line two seconds down on Bottas. Mercedes was the last team to send its cars out, but its drivers are the first to set times in FP1.
Radio Comms
Bottas is told his tyre surface temperatures are "still not in the window, especially at the front". It's a bit early to assume Mercedes is going to have tyre sweet spot difficulties though, so we won't.
Stopwatch
Hamilton goes fastest next time around with a 1m47.5s. Bottas does a 1m48.1s, both are on supersofts.
Bottas improves, but he's still 0.074s down on Hamilton.
Yellow flag
We have a Toro Rosso in the escape road.
Green flag
Hartley rejoins after finding reverse, having gone straight on at the tricky, narrow Turn 8. It's the little uphill section that is a pretty famous part of this circuit.
Radio Comms
"Remember weaving to heat tyres," Hartley is told.
Stopwatch
The Mercedes drivers continue to improve as a handful of other cars come out. Hamilton remains fastest on a 1m46.4s.
Edd Straw
Hamilton is sliding around much less than Bottas. While the grip level doesn’t look perfect, his tyre warm up approach seems better than that of Bottas, who can’t keep the rear doing what he wants. The Finn is only driver with the rear stepping out through 11, which it has the previous three laps.

By: Geoff Creighton

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