No one knew what to expect from the first time for these ground effect single-seaters on the always very characteristic Baku street circuit and therefore the action on track was very high from the beginning to the end of Free Practice 1.
Without a doubt, the first thing that caught our attention was the seriousness of porpoising , especially in the Mercedes and Ferrari single-seaters. Back in the Red Bull garage, meanwhile, Max Verstappen’s DRS seemed to be a concern again on the mile-long Azerbaijan straight.
At the end of the first sixty minutes of activity this weekend, Sergio Pérez set the best time of the morning with a 1:45.476, beating Charles Leclerc by one tenth. Max Verstappen finished third, just ahead of Carlos Sainz.
Behind the great favorites, a Fernando Alonso managed to place himself just over a second behind the best time of the Mexican Red Bull driver, although it should be noted that Alpine was the last team to fit the soft tires to its drivers and the Spanish marked his time with the stopwatch at zero.
Sixth place went to Lewis Hamilton, who was slightly quicker than Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri and his Mercedes team-mate George Russell.
Closing out the top ten positions, Pierre Gasly and Estaban Ocon finished ninth and tenth respectively.
At the back of the grid, Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi, who were forced to stop their cars early due to different problems with their cars, closed the time table, behind and Daniel Ricciardo, much further behind the expected.
FP1 Results, Free Practice 1 of the Azerbaijan GP 2022 F1
(Click on ‘see results’ to enjoy the entire table)
| Cla | Pilot | laps | Weather | Difference | Interval | Km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Sergio Perez |
 |
twenty-one | 1,45,476 | 204,888 | ||
| 2 |  Charles Leclerc |
 |
21 | 1’45.603 | 0.127 | 0.127 | 204.641 |
| 3 |  Max Verstappen |
 |
25 | 1’45.810 | 0.334 | 0.207 | 204.241 |
| 4 |  Carlos Sainz Jr. |
 |
22 | 1’46.012 | 0.536 | 0.202 | 203,852 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso |
 |
22 | 1’46.571 | 1.095 | 0.559 | 202.783 |
| 6 |  Lewis Hamilton |
 |
21 | 1’46.667 | 1.191 | 0.096 | 202.600 |
| 7 |  Yuki Tsunoda |
 |
twenty five | 1’46.696 | 1.220 | 0.029 | 202.545 |
| 8 | George Russell |
 |
24 | 1’46.705 | 1.229 | 0.009 | 202.528 |
| 9 |  Pierre Gasly |
 |
25 | 1’46,830 | 1,354 | 0.125 | 202,291 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon |
|
21 | 1’46.917 | 1.441 | 0.087 | 202.126 |
| see results | |||||||
Summary of Free Practice 1 of the Azerbaijan GP 2022 F1
As soon as the traffic light on the Baku street circuit came on, the drivers began to parade down the pitlane lane with apparent haste, in fact, once the first four minutes of Free Practice 1 were completed, all the single-seaters were already on the asphalt.
The vast majority of drivers took to the track on the medium tire and Max Verstappen quickly moved into first place with a 1m48.574s, well ahead of all his rivals, although that time was reduced by himself to 1m46.932s a few minutes later. , ahead of Leclerc.
Arriving in the first ten minutes of FP1, Mick Schumacher was forced to stop his car at one of the loopholes on the track due to a hydraulic leak in his Haas and caused the first appearance of the Virtual Safety Car, which would return a few moments later after another problem, then at Nicholas Latifi’s Williams.
With 40 minutes still to go, the action returned to the first free practice session of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where the rebounds due to porpoising were taking almost all eyes, especially due to their severity in the Mercedes and Ferrari cars.
The first driver to test the protections was Lance Stroll in the first minutes of FP1, the Canadian Aston Martin driver hit the barriers but was able to return to the pits by himself so that his mechanics could check for possible damage.
In the time table and still with the media, the Red Bulls continued to stand out above their rivals, with Leclerc half a second behind. In the middle zone, AlphaTauri started with the first poster of the rest, ahead of the two Alpine pilots.
After the halfway point of Free Practice 1, Carlos Sainz returned to his garage so that the Ferrari mechanics could work on the car, presumably in a configuration change, in search of more performance or trying to avoid the seriousness of the porpoising that seems to be very severe here. .
While his rivals suffered from the rebound effect, at Red Bull they saw again how Verstappen’s DRS failed on the straights and caused concern in the garage.
The Dutchman was one of the first to mount the softer compounds and lowered the clock to 1:45.810. Other drivers wearing the same rubber, such as Norris, Tsunoda and Magnussen, were more than a second and a half behind the current championship leader.
Sainz, with the soft, remains two seconds behind Verstappen, while Checo Pérez managed to rise to first position with a time of 1:45.476 after having almost touched the protections. A few minutes later, Leclerc did the same and placed third, in the same tenth as the Dutch driver.
The Mercedes, after some changes in the configuration of the car, were placed fifth and eighth, with Hamilton ahead of Russell and Alonso in the middle, still with the middle. Gasly and Tsunoda also improved on the soft and both positioned themselves just ahead of the Mercedes.
In the final minutes, everyone returned to testing fast laps on the soft compound and the positions changed, leaving Alonso first of the rest in fifth position after being one of the last drivers to go out on track with these tyres.
Behind the Spanish driver, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Russell, Gasly and Ocon lined up very evenly, opening a distance of eight tenths with respect to the first driver who was outside the top ten, Lando Norris.
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Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
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Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
