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Azerbaijan GP
F1 Azerbaijan GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & FP2
Live updates for all of Friday's action ahead of Formula 1's Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku
F1 returns to the unique Baku Street Circuit for the eighth round of the 2022 championship, the second street event in a row following the Monaco GP.
Sergio Perez was the winner last time out, and now sits only 15 points behind championship leader and team-mate Max Verstappen - as Charles Leclerc remains between them in second in the drivers' standings.
Verstappen will be looking for retribution after his spectacular tyre blowout at last year's Baku race, which cost him victory in Azerbaijan's capital city.
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Here's a full round-up of events from that session: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-azerbaijan-gp-fp1-perez-/10319567/
So, everyone - somehow, and just about in the case of Lance Stroll - managed to keep it out of the walls. But plenty of drivers struggling for grip and the return of porpoising means this has got all the hallmarks of a particularly challenging grand prix
As practice starts are now being done by the drivers, the final leaderboard is Perez, Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz, Alonso and Hamilton. Russell finishes up eighth, while Ricciardo ended it down in 18th and is 1.2s behind team-mate Norris in 11th
And there was a late improver while Verstappen was busy spinning as Alonso went up to fifth, beating Hamilton by a tenth.
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Somehow Verstappen avoided the wall there as the car spun around - "I don't know what's going on," he says. "We really need to check that."
Yellow flag
But there's time for some more drama as Verstappen gets it wrong on his final flying lap at Turn 15 and spins
Checkered flag
And that's it. Perez takes the chequered flag - appropriate given he ends the session on top
Replays show the AlphaTauri had a huge lock-up going into the corner and went flying down the escape road.
Yellow flag
Gasly is the latest driver to make an error as he goes straight on at Turn 15 and continues
Stopwatch
Alpine has been one of the last teams to bolt on the softs and Alonso and Ocon have finally set their times now. Alonso goes eighth, 0.002s behind Russell, with Ocon 10th
Bottas hasn't looked quite so strong in the Italian flag-liveried Alfa Romeo today and has just improved to 14th on his latest lap
Vettel is another getting frustrated by the traffic as he waves furiously at one of the AlphaTauris he felt was blocking him
Aside from Latifi and Schumacher, who caused the virtual safety car periods, the slowest driver is Ricciardo. The McLaren man's misery continues
Hamilton, who has been warned about crossing the pitlane entry line, is now back up to fifth, 1.2s behind Perez now
Stopwatch
Leclerc, without so much traffic, now moves up to second - and that's a bit more encouraging from Ferrari
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Leclerc moans about Russell blocking him on the fast lap a few minutes ago. "They should just stay in the middle," he says.
Stopwatch
But Hamilton has now been displaced by Gasly, who goes a tenth of a second quicker
Stopwatch
Hamilton has now shown what Mercedes is really capable of and moves to fifth, but it's still 1.5s from Perez's pace
Stopwatch
Leclerc now sets his soft tyre time and it's third quickest, fractionally slower than Verstappen. But it wasn't a clean lap with traffic and a lock-up hampering the Ferrari driver
Further back, Russell has improved up to eighth on his soft tyres but is a depressing 2.3s off the lead pace
Stopwatch
And now Perez goes top, an impressive three tenths quicker than his team-mate. He came oh-so close to striking the Turn 15 barrier, but the Mexican with the new contract in his back pocket, is performing to perfection
Stopwatch
Sainz is also now on the softs and improves to second, two tenths back from Verstappen.
Meanwhile, Alonso has improved to fourth and the Mercedes cars have tumbled further down the leaderboard to 15th and 18th
The DRS is really flapping around on the Red Bull in the "insane" winds that Verstappen is experiencing
Stopwatch
And sure enough Verstappen improves to a 1m45.810s - some six tenths quicker than his medium best
Verstappen has now bolted on the soft tyres and is pushing, getting very close to the barriers!
Yellow flag
It's a scrappy session for Stroll as he gets it all wrong heading into Turn 4 and goes straight on. But no harm done and he soon continues
Stopwatch
As more drivers head out again, Alonso is the latest improver going ip to seventh, fractionally slower than compatriot Sainz
Given the prominence of porpoising, it's perhaps not a surprise to see Hamilton and Russell in 11th and 13th for Mercedes
So, we're at the midpoint of this session. But what have we learned? Haas and Williams have some reliability problems. Red Bull looks fast. Porpoising is a problem, but not a lot else so far with the Ferraris still not having ventured onto the widely-used medium tyres
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Gasly is another driver not happy. "I've never felt that much bottoming," said Gasly. "Thanks for the feedback," replies his engineer, who adds that everyone else is also struggling with porpoising - the cars are noticeably bouncing around more than usual this weekend.
Magnussen is one of the few out on track and he has just improved to seventh, even getting perilously close to the Turn 15 wall Stroll clouted earlier
The majority of cars are in the pits now with just a handful of drivers making use of the quieter track
Just 0.068s separate the two Red Bulls at the minute, with Leclerc half a second back in third. But we must remember the Ferraris are the only ones currently using the hard tyres
Stopwatch
Perez is chief among those as he goes second, while Tsunoda has climbed to fifth
And his fourth spot is quickly taken by Gasly, as plenty of drivers are now starting to improve
Stopwatch
Sainz is one of the first improvers after that latest VSC as he moves to fourth, but still 1.6s off the ultimate pace
From the initial times, it's Verstappen, Leclerc, Perez, Alonso and Sainz leading the way. But with Russell currently 17th, it's not exactly representative at the moment.
Green flag
We're finally back under way in Baku - but for how long this time...
So, for the drivers wanting to get to grips with the Baku track, it's all been quite disjointed so far today
By: autosport.com
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