F1 2022 results: Azerbaijan GP – Third Practice session

Sergio Perez continued his excellent recent form by setting the fastest time in FP3 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver won in Monaco last time out, finished second at the previous race in Barcelona and has worked his way into the World Championship picture, 15 points behind the leader, his team-mate Max Verstappen.

The 32-year-old Mexican was also quickest in FP1 on the Baku City Circuit and on Saturday he went more than two seconds faster than he had 24 hours earlier, clocking a 1:43.170 to be seven hundredths of a second ahead of Charles Leclerc.

Bouncing of the cars has been a prominent feature of free practice in Baku so far and that was the case again in a session that was delayed by 15 minutes while repairs were made to the barriers at Turn 1 following an incident in F2.

Consequently, qualifying will also begin 15 minutes later than planned to allow the minimum two-hour duration between sessions for the teams to work on their cars.

As has been the case throughout the season so far, it was Ferrari and Red Bull who dominated the timesheets in the final running before the grid placings are decided.

Again, not for the first time, for much of the session Mercedes were looking best of the rest, one exception being a terrific lap by Pierre Gasly who got a valuable tow from Lando Norris’ McLaren down the long pits straight as AlphaTauri continue their improved showing this weekend.

Both Mercedes drivers – Lewis Hamilton and George Russell – were complaining over the team radio of rear-end issues with their respective W13. The seven-time former World Champion was also told the engine he was using had been turned down due to limitations on mileage.

It's not only the Mercedes bouncing… https://t.co/i1E4Zpeina

— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) June 11, 2022

In the end, during a comparatively clean session, it was the McLarens of Norris and Daniel Ricciardo who were fifth and sixth – but more than a second off Perez’s pace.

You can read the full report of the session here.

Results: Second Practice (FP2) – 2022 Azerbaijan GP

1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:43.170
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 0.070s
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 0.279s
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 0.426s
5 Lando Norris McLaren 1.248s
6 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1.306s
7 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1.321s
8 George Russell Mercedes 1.403s
9 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1.515s
10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1.519s
11 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1.672s
12 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1.675s
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1.709s
14 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1.743s
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1.749s
16 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1.794s
17 Alex Albon Williams 2.309s
18 Mick Schumacher Haas 2.362s
19 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 2.404s
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams 2.900s