Azerbaijan GP: Norris sets the pace in FP1 as Piastri is momentarily sidelined with PU issues
Lando Norris in Baku
Lando Norris topped the timesheet in the opening practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix while his teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri was momentarily sidelined with an engine issue.
The upside for Piastri, the bulk of his time in the garage coincided with a red flag as track marshals set about fixing the Turn 16 kerb that had been lifted.
Lando Norris sets the pace in FP1 at Baku
As the sun shone down on the Baku street circuit, Red Bull’s day got off to a damp start with the roof above Max Verstappen’s pit box exit dripping and creating a puddle.
Nico Hulkeberg was the first out of the pits and posted a 1:47.293 as the opening benchmark time, while Lando Norris was told by McLaren to box as they’d left “something” on the car. It was a cover on the pitot tube on the nose of the car.
Gabriel Bortoleto was the first to explore the Baku escape roads, George Russell smelt a “bit of burning”, Alex Albon lost a mirror and Oscar Piastri, told to “avoid full load, keep low revs”, returned to the pits.
The championship leader climbed out of his MCL39 and removed his helmet, a sign that it could be a terminal issue. His teammate Norris went P1 with a 1:43.747.
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Up to second and 0.403s down on Norris, Russell got on the radio to Mercedes and didn’t sound all that great. The Briton had withdrawn from Thursday’s media sessions with illness. He was 0.15s up on Charles Leclerc with Max Verstappen a further 0.05s down.
The red flags were out 16 minutes into the session due to debris on the track at Turn 16. That turned out to be an issue with the kerb, which had been lifted.
After a 10-minute delay, Race Control green-lighted the session only to throw the yellow flag as it turned out to be a bigger issue than expected.
The good news for Piastri, McLaren were able to work on his MCL39 without him losing track time compared to his rivals. The team revealed: “We’d identified a PU issue, which we believe we’ve rectified. Now planning to get Oscar back out when we get going again.”
Back on track with 20 minutes remaining in the session, a busy track and traffic had Isack Hadjar complaining about one of the Williams drivers, Verstappen went second behind Norris only for the McLaren driver to up his pace and put a second between himself and the Red Bull driver. Piastri was up to third.
Lewis Hamilton had a moment with a wall, shaving off his Ferrari’s front wing edge plate at Turn 5 and returning to the garage for repairs. He was P10 at the time. Hamilton radio: “I’ve clipped the wall.”
There was a late moment for Verstappen as well as Esteban Ocon with Norris finishing P1 by three-tenths ahead of Piastri. Charles Leclerc was P3.