Photo: Red Bull Media House

F1 Azerbaijan GP FP1: Verstappen on top in disrupted session

With Free Practice One being the only free practice session of the weekend, track time would be very valuable for the teams.

Alpha Tauri’s Nyck de Vries was the only driver on the soft tyres at the start of the session, everyone else opting for the mediums, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez leading the way at the top of the standings after the opening laps.

It was a challenging start to the session for Mercedes as well, with Lewis Hamilton coming onto the team radio and saying he had no brakes.

A quarter through the session, the red flag was out as Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly ran wide at turn one. When he rejoined the track, flames were coming out of the back of his Alpine.

The red flag would see a quarter of the session lost and with only 30 minutes of track time left, this weekend was going to be more of a challenge for the drivers and the teams than it was already going to be.

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen also stopped on track at the same time, also down at turn one.

Shortly after the session resumed, Esteban Ocon climbed out of his car creating a real headache and problematic session for Alpine.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had gone fastest in the session before being piped to the top of the standings by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on his final lap.

Verstappen’s team mate Perez would finish the session in third, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Lando Norris rounding out the top five.

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