Verstappen leads crash-strewn first Baku GP practice

Max Verstappen topped a disrupted first practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Charles Leclerc crashed out less than halfway through the session. Leclerc was on his second push lap of the hour, having set the fastest time of the session two laps earlier, when he carried too much speed into the rapid Turn 15. His Ferrari sailed past the apex of the downhill left-hander and speared directly into the barriers, doing most damage to his front-right corner. “I took the dirt on the outside,” Leclerc radioed, referring to the dusty street surface that greeted the sport on its return to Baku. The session was suspended for around seven minutes to collect the car, but running had resumed for less than 10 minutes when rookie Franco Colapinto crashed his Williams at Turn 4. The Argentine, starting his second race weekend, turned late into the right-hander and ended up on the dust, which sent him sliding into the outside barrier. His car whacked his rear-left corner and then its front-left before coming to rest in what could amount to a sizable repair job ahead of second practice later today. Combined with an earlier red flag to collect metal debris from the circuit, drivers lost almost 20 minutes of the hour to suspensions. Through the carnage and delays emerged Verstappen, who lowered the benchmark to 1m45.546s with an after-the-flag lap on used soft tires. His lap was constructed on purple times in the opening two sectors; intriguingly the Dutchman was well off the pace in the flat-out final split. Lewis Hamilton had topped the time sheet from shortly before Colapinto’s red flag until Verstappen’s knockout punch, the Mercedes driver’s time 0.313s slower than the Red Bull Racing man’s headline lap. Sergio Perez completed the top three, also with a time set after the flag, to lap 0.376s slower than his session-leading teammate. Lando Norris was 0.481s off the pace in fourth, 0.145s ahead of Carlos Sainz and 0.255s quicker than McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri. “Bottoming level is quite high through the high speed,” Piastri reported early in the session. “It’s not exactly straightforward.” Fernando Alonso was quickest in the final sector but 0.906s off the pace overall in seventh ahead of George Russell and Leclerc, who held onto ninth despite his crash. Daniel Ricciardo crept into the top 10 for RB, complete with the team’s latest upgrade package after forgoing the new bits in Italy. Oliver Bearman, replacing the suspended Kevin Magnussen this weekend, was 11th and 0.162s quicker than Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg in 12th. Lance Stroll was 13th and 0.732s slower than teammate Alonso. “This is not a car,” the Canadian blasted over team radio. “This is not a car right now.” Valtteri Bottas was 14th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda — “My car is bouncing like hell,” said the Japanese driver late in the session — and the smashed-up Colapinto. Alex Albon narrowly avoided Colapinto’s fate at Turn 4 to take his Williams to 17th ahead of Pierre Gasly and Zhou Guanyu down to 19th. Esteban Ocon completed only three laps before suffering a power unit issue that forced him back to garage for analysis.