By: After a week off, Formula 1 is finally back in action. This weekend, albeit an unusual one with track activity beginning on Thursday and the Grand Prix taking place on Saturday, the Baku street circuit in Azerbaijan will provide the stage.
As soon as the green flag was shown at the Azerbaijani circuit, every driver headed straight out to begin gathering data. Carlos Sainz, however, was forced into a lengthy stop after his rear brakes caught fire in front of the Scuderia Ferrari HP garage when he returned to the pit lane.
Speaking of brakes, according to reports, having abandoned them after the Monaco Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc has chosen to use Brembo discs again this weekend, giving him greater familiarity with a car component that is placed under real strain at this type of circuit.
Twenty minutes into the session, championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli was the fastest driver on track, having stopped the clock at 1:46.265, with Lewis Hamilton just one tenth behind. However, the Italian's running came to an end shortly afterwards due to a hydraulic issue on his Mercedes.
On the soft tyre, Max Verstappen then moved ahead of everyone with a 1:45.787, shortly before George Russell, in the only Mercedes left on track, lowered the benchmark to 1:45.387.
It was a difficult session for both McLarens, which were confined to the garage with what appeared to be a similar issue on the cars of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The Australian was only able to return to the track with two minutes remaining.
On the medium tyres, Charles Leclerc was then able to improve, moving up to third ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, just over four tenths behind session leader George Russell.
The final minutes of the session were marked by a series of incidents and several yellow flags. The first driver in the spotlight was Arvid Lindblad, who ran wide but managed to keep control of his Racing Bulls, avoiding the Tecpro barriers and getting going again.
Less fortunate was Nico Hülkenberg, who was forced to retire with a technical problem. The final incident of the session involved Esteban Ocon, who had to park his Haas at the pit-lane exit.
At the end of the first practice session in Azerbaijan, it was George Russell who took the chequered flag first with a 1:45.387. Max Verstappen was second, four tenths back, after setting a 1:45.787, while Charles Leclerc claimed the final place in the top three thanks to his medium-tyre lap of 1:45.791. Below is the full FP1 classification.
All the news, photos, weather, session times and times from the Azerbaijan GP 2026
