Rand Norris spent almost half the session’s cost in an opening practice session at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after a long delay in curb repairs.
The session was running for just 14 minutes as it was hung under the red flag to clear circuit debris. Initially, the wrong car part was suspected, but Marshall’s inspection revealed it was a rubber strip that leapt out from under the curb at the exit of Turn 16.
With great effort, the Original S was able to drive away the rubber a few minutes later, but the incident raised concerns about curb security, leading to a rather long delay when the issue was checked.
It took me a total of 25 minutes to get the car back on the circuit. At that point, there were only 21 minutes left.
Norris had already moved to the top spot of the timesheet before the red flag, and the McLaren driver then picked up from where he left off, expanding his advantage with the fastest lap of 1M42.704. It was an emphatic benchmark that exempt him from teammate Oscar Piastri to 0.31 seconds.
The long delay was good news for Australians who were forced into the pit lane after only two laps due to power unit issues.
“Charge, back off. Avoid full loads, avoid low revs,” he said on the team radio, and the problem looked miserable as the driver left the car and immediately covered the engine. However, the team was able to resolve the issue during the suspension and Piastri was ready to go to the track with the rest of the field, leaving only a handful of laps lost in total.
His fastest time caught up with a loss later in the session, but the lap was crude and included a 15-turn barrier.
Charles Leclerc and Baku Paulgetter in the fourth inning were third, but were 0.552 seconds off the pace. Most of Ferrari’s deficits were in sectors 1 and 2, but Leclerc won the fractional amount in the third split. This is the flat-out section between turn 16 and the start finish line.
George Russell was fourth in Mercedes, who reported that the British had hit a fairly bottom in their early runs. Also, Russell, who reported a burning smell in the cockpit early in the day, skipped the media duties on Thursday due to illness.
Alex Albon was fifth fastest despite hitting the barrier on turn 15 on his final performance lap on the soft, dropping Williams’ driver a 0.859 out of the pace.
Tsunoda was the fastest Red Bull racing driver, finishing the session in 6th place and 1.034 seconds. His teammate Max Verstappen continued in 7th place and 0.069, but Dutchman lost his final performance and lost a mistake in which he jumped into the leaked area on 15 turns.
Carlos Anaiss was eighth in the second Williams, ahead of Race Bulls teammates Liam Lawson and Isaac Hajar.
Andrea Kimi Antoneli ran a nice run of time, finishing 11th ahead of Sauber’s Nico Halkenberg.
Lewis Hamilton was 1.383 seconds from the 13th and 1.383 seconds after a nasty final performance run that hit the barrier in turn 5. The incident sacrificed Britton’s front wing and punk, and then returned his knee to the pit lane without completing.
Gabriel Boltreto finished 14th ahead of Fernando Alonso. Aston Martin appeared to be pushing the fronts of Oliver Baerman, Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon to the bottom significantly.
Alpine teammates Franco Colapinto and Pierre Guthrie were locked at the bottom of the 2.7-second order from a 2.5-second pace and 2.7-second 2.2-second order, respectively.
result
