Charles Leclerc has led the first day in Azerbaijan, although Red Bull promises battle once again. Carlos Sainz was unable to register a representative time in the last session, but he was optimistic for Saturday.
Scuderia Ferrari has recorded the fastest time at the end of the first day of free practice of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, courtesy of Charles Leclerc. As for Carlos Sainz, traffic and yellow flags spoiled his fastest lap attempt on soft tyres, so he was unable to improve on the time he set earlier on medium tyres.
As usual on an urban circuit, one of the objectives of the day was for the drivers to pick up the pace and know the limits of the track. Between both pilots, they completed 92 laps43 in the morning and 49 in the afternoon, evaluating all available tire compounds.
“Our race pace seems pretty strong”
Work was also done on fine-tuning the aerodynamic package for Baku, which, in addition to several 90-degree corners, has very slow sections such as turn 8 and very fast sectors, especially the final stretch of 2.2 kilometers.
In the first hour, Leclerc and Sainz started on hard tyres, with the Monegasque posting a 1m46.999s, while the Spaniard was content with a 1m48.116s. Halfway through the session, both switched to soft tires and posted their best times of the session. Leclerc stopped the clock in 1:45,603 and Sainz dropped to 1:46.012. The first completed 21 laps and the second did 22.
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In session two, both drivers tested the new low-downforce rear wing, while continuing to evaluate available tire compounds.
On medium tyres, Leclerc posted a 1m43.806s, while Sainz stopped the clock at 1m45.118s, before dropping to 1m44.274s. In the second part of the session, both F1-75s started on softs and Leclerc finished with a lap in 1:43.224being the fastest of all.
Sainz ran into traffic and yellow flags and was unable to improve on his set time with the media and thus remained fifth on the timesheets. Towards the end, Leclerc and Sainz ran heavier fuel loads on soft and medium tires respectively, to acquire as much data as possible: 24 laps for the Monegasque, 25 for the Spaniard.
charles leclerc
“We had a solid first day. The progression we made from session to session was good and we worked well as a team. The lap times are not representative, because no one did a proper lap in the second session. There is still plenty of room for improvement.”.
“Our race pace seemed pretty strong and I felt good in the car.. As for the tires, I felt comfortable and had no grainingwhich is another positive aspect”.
Carlos Sainz
“It has been an interesting Friday, as always here in Baku. There were quite a few challenges during the first session and I was suffering too much with the reboundwhich made the session quite awkward.”
“We are working in the right direction for the second session, improving competitiveness and sensations. Overall it was a trouble-free second session despite not being able to close a full lap on the softs due to yellow flags. We hope to take another step forward tomorrow and have a clean qualifying.”
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Photos: Scuderia Ferrari