F1 Azerbaijan GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & Qualifying
Friday's action from the fourth round of the 2023 Formula 1 season
F1 heads to Baku this weekend for round four of the 2023 championship, with Max Verstappen leading the standings from team-mate Sergio Perez.
The weekend will follow a different format, with a single free practice session on Friday followed by qualifying for Sunday's grand prix.
Saturday now features a shorter sprint qualifying 'shootout' for the afternoon's sprint race, meaning drivers will get thrown right into competitive action in the morning without a practice session to warm up.
FP1 starts at 10.30am BST, with Qualifying getting underway at 2pm BST.
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, the risk of rain in this session is 0% - so that's one less thing for the teams to think about amid the new format.
Right, this is your five-minute warning until qualifying is due to begin!
Red Bull narrowly topped the times earlier with Verstappen, but Leclerc was just fractions behind. And, given he and Ferrari have a habit of strong qualifying performances at Baku, don't rule them out here today.
So, what can we expect from qualifying? Given it's Baku, we should perhaps expect the unexpected. Plenty of drivers were caught out in FP1 earlier - and more could be in the wars.
Breaking news
Another development to emerge so far today is that the teams have blocked the FIA's attempt to close a tyre loophole with the new format being adopted this weekend - remember the exact timetable was only agreed days ago. Here's the full story: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-teams-block-fias-attempt-to-close-sprint-race-tyre-loophole/10461718/
Breaking news
This round comes at the end of a four-week break for the teams - and plenty of them have therefore brought upgrades to Baku. Ominously for the rest, that includes 2023 dominator Red Bull: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/how-red-bull-has-further-improved-its-dominant-rb19-f1-car/10461716/
But one team undoubtedly on the backfoot more than most is Alpine. Gasly suffered a fire caused by an hydraulics leak earlier and that means the mechanics are frantically working to get the Frenchman out in this session, while Ocon also lost a chunk of running with problems at the rear of his car.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine A523, stand by as marshals assist with a fire
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Teams and drivers are very much heading into this session on the backfoot with just one hour of practice under their belts (and some needing to get used to their upgraded cars). And even a quarter of that time was lost to a red flag.
As a reminder, this afternoon's session will set the grid for Sunday's main race - with tomorrow's sprint contest getting its own qualifying session in the morning.
Now, don't worry, it is Friday and we do mean qualifying! For those of you who have forgotten, this is the first sprint event of the F1 season, so qualifying takes place a day early.
Hello and welcome back to our Friday coverage of this year's Azerbaijan GP event! Qualifying is now just under 20 minutes away.
We're off for a spot of lunch now, but we'll be back shortly before 2pm BST for qualifying!
Read the full practice report here: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-azerbaijan-gp-fp1-report-verstappen-leclerc/10461673/
Qualifying takes place in just two hours time. Will Verstappen take a third pole of the season?
Lots of drivers out doing practice starts now - it's the only chance they'll get ahead of qualifying this afternoon
Norris finished in fifth ahead of de Vries, with the Aston Martin pair in eighth and ninth. Albon and Zhou rounded off the top 10
Leclerc finishes practice in second, with Perez in third ahead of Sainz
Checkered flag
Verstappen crosses the line as the chequered flag waves to go quickest with a 1m42.315s
Stopwatch
Leclerc goes quickest by 0.25s from Sergio Perez, with Verstappen in third
Stopwatch
Leclerc goes second fastest by 0.09s, slotting in between the two Red Bulls
Alonso's DRS issue is fixed, so he'll be back out soon as we head into the final seven minutes of the session
Several drivers have gone off or spun, with Leclerc and Sargeant among them
Stopwatch
Perez is now top with a 1m42.651s ahead of his team-mate
Albon goes second quickest, 0.5s behind leader Verstappen, who improves again to a 1m43.042s
Alonso now has an issue with his car and is told to box - how many cars will make it through this session with no problems?
Stroll has now gone second fastest, just 0.2s behind Verstappen and 0.07s ahead of Perez
Nyck de Vries bumps Alonso down one place, slotting into fourth just one second behind leader Verstappen
Stopwatch
Alonso is now fourth fastest, with a 1m44.893s
Esteban Ocon is now out of his car - the nightmare continues for Alpine
Bit of info from Alpine about Gasly's earlier issue:
Green flag
The session has resumed! We've lost 13 minutes under the red flag
...although there won't be much running left at this rate! 33 minutes left on the clock, but there's still a red flag
AlphaTauri have taken the "gaffer tape fixes everything" approach to Tsunoda's car to make sure he can get back out for the rest of the session...
Stopwatch
Max Verstappen currently leads the session from his team-mate Sergio Perez, with the Ferrari pair led by Leclerc in third and fourth
The clock keeps ticking despite the red flag, so we've now got 40 minutes of practice remaining
Gasly's car is still kicking out a lot of smoke, Magnussen's car is stranded out on track, and Tsunoda has a significant amount of damage. What a great start to the day!
After what happened last time out in Melbourne, this is not an ideal start for Alpine
Kevin Magnussen is also stopped out on track at Turn 1
Red flag
Red flag! This is very bad news for the teams given there is only one hour of practice this weekend
Pierre Gasly had run wide at Turn 1, rejoined, but now there are flames coming out the back of his Alpine. He might want to get that seen to sharpish
By: Autosport Staff
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