F1 Azerbaijan GP live commentary and updates – FP3

We'll be back shortly for qualifying, where everything will be on the line in the battle for pole. Who'll make the fewest mistakes? 

Catch you in a bit!

Piastri goes again and gets third, sucking up a nice tow from Max Verstappen. 

Russell's been struggling with confidence on the brakes - the Mercs had been split by Bearman, but rises to sixth place behind Antonelli.

Hamilton gets a mighty first sector, and gets up to third overall. Definitely the chance of a five-way fight for pole, if both Ferraris, McLarens, and one Verstappen are in the mix.

Albon had an off, and reports that the 'wind is picking up a bit'. Lots of brief yellows as the drivers explore all of the space available around the circuit. 

Verstappen went good guns in the first sector, but lost two tenths to Norris in sector two - which is preserved through the final sector. Piastri gets up to third place. 

Piastri takes a snap of oversteer out of Turn 4, so aborts his lap. He had to cut his way through a bit of traffic, which might have unsettled him slightly. 

Following that, the Australian went deep into Turn 1 and has to take to the run-off.

Verstappen aborts another lap too, while Leclerc isn't able to pick up the pace on this run with new tyres as he's lost time in sector two.

Albon finds two purple sectors, but without a tow he's unable to beat Verstappen's time - he falls 0.256s short. Russell is in a similar situation and gets up to third...

Sensational spin by Lawson, who lost the car coming out of Turn 16 and managed to get the car to face the right way on the exit. 

The wind direction has changed, and it's now a cross-wind along the main straight. Hamilton goes up to third, just under a tenth shy of Leclerc.

Verstappen is up to second, with a purple middle sector.

Meanwhile, Bearman's back out on those hard tyres and goes fourth, 0.5s off Leclerc's current pace. 

It's now a 1m42.354s for Leclerc, as Ferrari returns to the top of the order. Hamilton aborted a lap after a slide through Turn 16.

Gasly has also fallen foul of the circuit a couple of times, lightly clipping the inside wall at Turn 5 and later going wide at Turn 1. 

Bearman keeps finding time and he's up to a 1m44.450s, which counters Leclerc's first effort on softs - the Ferrari driver is 0.243s behind.

Tsunoda then goes second. Alex Albon hits third place too, so the circuit's looking a little bit better.

Bearman has our first timed lap on the board, a 1m47.333s. "It's challenging with the wind," he says, as Norris now hits the track on a set of softs.

Piastri and Hulkenberg also emerge from the pitlane.

Bearman had a lock up at Turn 4, as he's the only car on track - and on the hard tyre.

Everyone will need to keep a medium and a hard tyre back for the race - everybody except Albon has two sets of the C4 available for this session and all have at least two of the C5s.

Albon used one of his C4 sets yesterday as Williams wanted to gauge the hard tyre.

"The wind is pushing me a lot to the right, on the straight," Hadjar says, as he encounters the sea breeze.

Lots of leaves on the circuit too. It's a headwind down the main straight, so that'll add some challenges to the braking zones in the first sector.

Over five minutes in, and...there's finally a car! It's Liam Lawson who kicks us off, as Ollie Bearman also arrives on the circuit.

So, that's something! Hadjar has joined the fray too.

Just a couple of minutes to go, are you ready? The City of Winds is looking a touch breezy...

10 minutes to go

We're not far away from getting started in Baku! Can Ferrari maintain its form, or will McLaren demonstrate its pace in an error-free session?

And then there's Red Bull: what has it found overnight? Let's find out.

Friday practice recap

FP1

Lando Norris headlined the first of the two Friday sessions, as a lengthy red flag cut around 25 minutes from the overall running following a kerb issue at Turn 16.

Oscar Piastri, who had suffered with a powertrain issue, was able to collect a fix during that time to minimise his lost track time.

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

1

 - 

4

Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	Tyres	km/h
1	L. Norris McLaren	4		McLaren	Mercedes	19	1'42.704		S	210.418
2	O. Piastri McLaren	81		McLaren	Mercedes	14	+0.310 1'43.014	0.310	S	209.785
3	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		Ferrari	Ferrari	17	+0.552 1'43.256	0.242	S	209.293
4	G. Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	16	+0.553 1'43.257	0.001	S	209.291
5	A. Albon Williams	23		Williams	Mercedes	17	+0.859 1'43.563	0.306	S	208.672
6	Y. Tsunoda Red Bull Racing	22		Red Bull	Red Bull	16	+1.034 1'43.738	0.175	S	208.320
View full results

FP2

Lewis Hamilton went quickest, citing a breakthrough in his braking set-up. Leclerc helped his team-mate test out the effect of a tow at the start of the lap, leading to a 0.074s difference.

McLaren faced difficulties as Lando Norris' rear end clouted the Turn 4 wall and broke his suspension, while Oscar Piastri was lucky not to do similar as the softer Tecpro at Turn 15 absorbed the impact. 

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

1

 - 

4

Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	Tyres	km/h
1	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44		Ferrari	Ferrari	21	1'41.293		S	213.349
2	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		Ferrari	Ferrari	23	+0.074 1'41.367	0.074	S	213.193
3	G. Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	19	+0.477 1'41.770	0.403	S	212.349
4	A. Antonelli Mercedes	12		Mercedes	Mercedes	22	+0.486 1'41.779	0.009	S	212.330
5	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87		Haas	Ferrari	23	+0.598 1'41.891	0.112	M	212.097
6	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		Red Bull	Red Bull	22	+0.609 1'41.902	0.011	S	212.074
View full results

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 / Getty Images

Baku in action

Hello! We're back for Day 2 of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix's track action, with FP3 coming up shortly before qualifying later on.

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images