Tight At The Top On Day 1 In Baku

Three drivers from three different teams covered by just 66 thousandths. Ever since Miami, the top teams have been very closely matched and that trend is continuing in Baku. Also ongoing is Charles Leclerc’s great form in the Ferrari, quickest in qualifying trim in 1’43”484. Second, just six thousandths slower is Sergio Perez (Red Bull) who always goes well in the Azerbaijan capital with two wins, a Sprint win and five podiums from seven appearances. Third is Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 66 thousandths down on his future team-mate.

Charles Leclerc – Fastest in FP2

“The pace was there today, but between the incident in FP1 and a problem we had in FP2 with the steering, we didn’t complete too many laps. It will be important for us to have a smooth FP3 and get ready to extract the most out of qualifying tomorrow.”

Max Verstappen – Fastest in FP1

“Overall, I think it has been a good day. We learnt quite a bit and now it is just about tidying up the things that we tried, but I think so far we have been more competitive this weekend so that’s positive. There has been a lot of work in the background and it has been positive. For sure FP2 was a bit more difficult for me. I had some issues with my visor, when the sun comes down in between the buildings you have some glaring moments and I struggled with the visibility. The track is also quite slippery and has a lot of 90 degree corners so I just need to get the balance together a bit more, however I’m quite confident that we can be more competitive.”

In terms of tyre use, it was confirmed that the Soft would not be an option for the race. The fact that only Alpine in FP1 and Mercedes in FP2 used a set of Hards with each of their drivers, meaning that the other eight teams saved all theirs for the rest of the weekend, demonstrates that the C3 is the tyre best suited for the race, which is totally in line with our predictions. The track evolution was very significant as the cars – F2 as well as F1 – put in the laps. Therefore, when looking at the times one has to also take this parameter into consideration.

Simone Berra – Pirelli Chief Engineer

“The two hours of practice were rather difficult to interpret, especially because of the track condition. We had already seen after taking track surface measurements on Wednesday that the grip level was lower than last year’s and also differed from one section of track to another and that was confirmed today once the cars started running. Lap times dropped very quickly, but they are still a way off those recorded in last year’s one and only free practice session, when Baku hosted the first Sprint format weekend of 2023, but also slower than those from earlier simulations. Why? It’s impossible to give a definitive answer but this may have been down to the fact the asphalt was not treated as it had been last year, as could be seen by the amount of dirt kicked up by the cars.

“We noticed some graining on the tyres over a long run, but not to a particularly high degree and we believe that, as the track rubbers in, its incidence will decrease. In terms of strategy, this is usually a race run in two parts, featuring the Medium and the Hard tyres, while the Soft is clearly a qualifying tyre. Therefore, that explains why eight of the ten teams kept both their sets of Hards, not so much because they are considering a two-stop, but to cover any eventual neutralisation and thus make the most of the tyre that’s the most competitive over a long distance.”

Formula 2

Richard Verschoor (Trident) secured pole position for the Feature Race just getting ahead of Kimi Antonelli (Prema) at the end: 1’54”857 for the Dutchman, 1’54”874 for the Italian in a session that was interrupted several times.

This year, there’s a change of compound for the Azerbaijan weekend. In order to provide a higher level of grip and to facilitate getting the tyres up to the right operating temperature, the P Zero Yellow medium used in 2023 has been replaced with the P Zero Red soft. This means there is no longer a jump in the compound choice as the other tyre is once again the P Zero purple supersoft. Drivers will probably have to deal with thermal degradation across the rear axle and those who manage this best will reap the reward in the closing stages of both races. Track evolution will be very significant from one session to the next and, when it comes to strategy for the Feature Race, it will be important to keep a close eye on the performance of the Supersoft, possibly for its eventual use in a stint of around a dozen laps.