Verstappen leads the accident-ridden first GP practice in Baku

Max Verstappen led a disrupted first practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Charles Leclerc crashed less than halfway through the session.

Leclerc was on his second push lap of the hour, having set the fastest time of the session two laps earlier, when he carried too much speed into the fast Turn 15. His Ferrari sailed past the apex of the downhill left-hander and slammed straight into the barriers, doing the most damage in his front-right corner.

“I hit the dirt from the outside,” Leclerc radioed, referring to the dusty road surface that awaited the sport on its return to Baku.

The session was stopped for around seven minutes to collect the car, but racing had not resumed for ten minutes when rookie Franco Colapinto crashed his Williams at Turn 4. The Argentine, starting his second weekend of racing, turned late into the right-hand corner and landed in the dust, causing him to slide into the outside barrier. His car hit the back-left corner and then the front-left before coming to a stop, which could mean significant repairs ahead of second practice later in the day.

Combined with an earlier red flag to collect metal parts from the track, the drivers lost almost 20 minutes of the hour due to stoppages.

From the carnage and delays, Verstappen emerged to lower the record to 1m45.546s on used soft tyres one lap after the chequered flag. His lap was built on the best times in the first two sectors; interestingly, the Dutchman was well behind on the final, flat-out lap.

Lewis Hamilton led the timesheets from just before Colapinto's red flag until Verstappen's knockout blow, with the Mercedes driver's time 0.313s slower than the Red Bull Racing man's top lap.

Sergio Perez completed the top three and also set a chequered flag time, 0.376 seconds slower than his session-leading teammate.

Lando Norris was 0.481 seconds slower than fourth place, 0.145 seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz and 0.255 seconds faster than his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

“The ground level is quite high due to the high speed,” Piastri reported at the start of the session. “It's not that easy.”

Fernando Alonso was fastest in the final sector, but was 0.906 seconds behind in seventh place overall, ahead of George Russell and Leclerc, who held on to ninth place despite his accident.

Daniel Ricciardo sneaked into the top 10 for RB, complete with the team's latest upgrade package, after going without the new parts in Italy.

Oliver Bearman, who replaced the suspended Kevin Magnussen this weekend, was eleventh and 0.162 seconds faster than Haas teammate Nico Hülkenberg in twelfth place.
Lance Stroll was 13th and 0.732 seconds slower than teammate Alonso.

“That's not a car,” the Canadian shouted over the team radio. “That's not a car at the moment.”

Valtteri Bottas finished 14th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda – “My car is jumping like crazy,” said the Japanese driver towards the end of the session – and the injured Colapinto.

Alex Albon narrowly escaped Colapinto's fate at Turn 4 and drove his Williams to 17th place ahead of Pierre Gasly and Zhou Guanyu, who dropped to 19th place.

Esteban Ocon was only able to complete three laps before he had to return to the garage for analysis due to a problem with the power unit.