Live text
Formula 1
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.
Live Standings
presented by
Stopped
Summary
3 Days
10 hrs
53 min
35 sec
Live Text
Sort by
Yellow flag
And we've now got another virtual safety car - this time it's Latifi in trouble reporting the "car just died". He's gone straight on at Turn 5.
Stopwatch
Leclerc now goes up to second behind pacesetter Verstappen, who reports that the "wind is pretty insane".
Yellow flag
We've had some drivers getting into strife already with Hamilton heading straight on a Turn 4, while Stroll has clouted the barrier exiting Turn 15. Not clear if that has actually done any damage to his Aston
Verstappen is wasting no time after that brief pause in proceedings and is setting purple sectors on this next lap
Green flag
And we're back to green with Schumacher's car now cleared
Quote
Aside from Schumacher, another unhappy driver is Sainz. "The bouncing doesn't feel nice in the car," he says.
So, we're under virtual safety car conditions in this practice session as the Haas is recovered from the side of the track
Replays show water pouring from the side of the Haas - that's not so much a leak as a flood from the VF-22
Yellow flag
Oh and what did we say about Schumacher earlier! He's off! But, fortunately, he's not hit anything this time but has no power and has been asked to stop
Oh, and after he was last to head out, Magnussen has also set a time now and is currently 11th
For the tyre aficionados among you, basically everyone is on medium tyres, except for the Ferraris on hards and the Astons on softs.
Stopwatch
Verstappen smashes that unrepresentative effort to go top with a 1m48.574s - to go a second quicker than anyone else's opening lap.
Stopwatch
We've now got some early times on the board with Ricciardo the current pacesetter on 1m52.890s - not that we can read absolutely anything into these
Vettel reports: "There's a lot of wandering down the straight, with the steering." Good he added that clarification at the end there...
A smattering of flow-vis paint is visible on the rear of Monaco winner Sergio Perez's Red Bull - and he's unlikely to be the only one
Make that 19 now - only Magnussen is yet to immediately head out
Unsurprisingly, a flood of cars have headed straight out onto the street circuit - 11 so far, to be precise
Green flag
And we're off! First practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is under way
It's warm and dry in Azerbaijan - and, just in case you were wondering, the risk of rain is 0% for this session. But, even without the wet stuff, the Baku track can be challenging enough
Anyway, that's enough talk of Italian flags and off-track debates, it's now just five minutes until practice gets under way
Ahead of practice, the F1 drivers spoke to the world's media this morning and among the more interesting nuggets, was Lewis Hamilton's call for drivers to be more outspoken, following the FIA president's apparent criticism of some of their activism: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/hamilton-urges-f1-drivers-to-be-more-outspoken-after-ben-sulayem-comments/10319496/
Another of the 2021 strugglers to have improved dramatically this year has been Alfa Romeo and the team has a special livery adopting the Italian flag for this weekend as we're racing in... Azerbaijan. The colours are actually to mark the launch of Alfa's new Tonale road car: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/alfa-romeo-reveals-special-f1-livery-at-azerbaijan-gp/10319015/
Those crashes have proved especially costly for Haas, given the team's improved performance this year. Here's Alex Kalinauckas's in-depth look at how the squad has turned its fortunes around, and its goals for the future: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/what-next-for-the-haas-f1-revival-story/10318160/
But first we've got practice. And this opening session could be a tricky one for the drivers - certainly if this morning's F2 red-flag interrupted running was anything to go by - with no-one wanting a costly accident to kick their weekend off on the wrong foot. Least of all Mick Schumacher, who has been warned by his Haas team that his recent run of crashes cannot continue: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/steiner-not-possible-for-schumacher-to-continue-run-of-f1-crashes/10319059/
It may have only been on the calendar for five years, but Azerbaijan has already produced some classic F1 races - and another one could be in store this weekend
After two weeks off, F1 heads from one street circuit to another as the tight confines of the Baku roads are the destination for round eight
Hello and welcome to Autosport's live text coverage of Azerbaijan Grand Prix Friday practice
By: autosport.com
Published:
Page:
