Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Sergio Perez on a roll

Two weeks after Monaco, Formula 1 is back under the sunny skies of Baku for the first free practice session.

From the first few minutes, Mercedes had the unpleasant surprise of encountering a problem that they thought they had resolved: porpoising. The W13 car was bouncing a lot, especially on the never-ending start/finish straight. It’s a problem that Carlos Sainz also complains about.

After eight minutes, Mick Schumacher had to stop his car on the edge of the track after a major water leak from his car, causing a brief virtual safety car.

Meanwhile, the Red Bulls secure the top two times with Verstappen in 1:48.594, nine tenths ahead of Perez. The RB18s are then ahead of Gasly, Ricciardo, and the two Ferraris, who are more than three seconds behind. However, Max Verstappen complains about the very strong wind.

Lance Stroll allows himself to lick the TecPro barriers at turn 15 without any damage, while Lewis Hamilton locks up his wheels and goes straight at turn 4. Then it’s Nicholas Latifi who triggers a second virtual safety car after his engine abruptly cuts out, forcing him to stop on the side of the track.

Perez the fastest

On the timing board, Charles Leclerc, with his hard tires, sets the best time in the first two sectors but fails to maintain his advantage in the final straight and finishes in second place, 67 milliseconds behind Verstappen.

The nice surprise comes from AlphaTauri with Pierre Gasly, fourth, and Yuki Tsunoda, fifth, at the mid-session. But like many others, the AT03 cars are experiencing a lot of bouncing. “I’ve never felt so many rebounds,” Gasly says on the radio.

On soft tires with 25 minutes remaining in the session, Max Verstappen pulls off a supersonic attack lap that allows him to be the first to go below 1:46.00 with a time of 1:45.810. But a few minutes later, it is Sergio Perez who displaces his teammate by improving his lap time by over three tenths.

The two Ferraris are following the Red Bulls. The four drivers are within half a second of each other, far ahead of the rest of the pack (with Alonso in fifth, 2 seconds behind Perez). The majority of the drivers are starting to switch to soft tires and lap times are soaring. Leclerc improves and takes second place from Verstappen by 0.127s behind Perez. The positions will not change for the top four.

Sergio Perez continues his momentum after his victory in Monaco. Join us at 4pm for the second free practice session.

Free Practice 1 results of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2022