Russell tops Baku first practice on a tow, with Verstappen four tenths back

George Russell was fastest in first practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but his 1:45.387 came with help. The Mercedes driver found a huge tow on his best lap and finished 0.400 seconds clear of Max Verstappen, who had been quick from his very first lap in Baku.

It was a messy hour. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli stopped with a hydraulic failure, McLaren had to check both cars for damage, Carlos Sainz’s brakes caught fire and Isack Hadjar spent much of his comeback session in the garage.

Russell’s benchmark came on a tow

Russell set his time on soft tyres with about 20 minutes to go. Crash.net described it as a lap on which he “benefitted from a huge tow”, and F1 Oversteer called it “a mighty slipstream”. On a street circuit with a straight as long as Baku’s, a car ahead is worth a lot of lap time.

Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari, just 0.004 seconds behind Verstappen, with Lewis Hamilton fourth. Antonelli held on to fifth with the 1:46.265 he set before his car failed.

Verstappen was on the pace from the start

Verstappen set the first reference time of the weekend on hard tyres, a 1:46.635, and improved to 1:46.512 on the same set while reporting that his brakes were pulling. On softs he locked up at Turn 1 on his first attempt and had to use the escape road, then went top with a 1:45.787 on the next lap. Only Russell’s towed lap beat it.

A session full of technical trouble

Few teams got through the hour cleanly:

• Mercedes: Antonelli lost hydraulic pressure and stopped at Turn 7 with smoke coming from his car, which brought out the first virtual safety car.
• McLaren: both cars were checked for damage on a day the team brought new sidepods, a new floor edge and a revised diffuser. Oscar Piastri found a late lap for sixth; Lando Norris was 14th without a representative soft-tyre run.
• Williams: the new, lighter car overheated its brakes, and Sainz’s rear brakes caught fire, costing him track time.
• Red Bull: both drivers reported brakes pulling; Hadjar then had an engine problem.
• Audi: Nico Hülkenberg had a problem at Turn 4 in the final minutes, causing a second virtual safety car.

Hadjar’s return starts in the garage

Hadjar, back in the car after three races out with a wrist fracture, finished 20th with a 1:47.873. He reported brake problems and was then told to slow down and pit with an engine issue, which cost him most of the session. Red Bull confirmed on Wednesday that he stays alongside Verstappen in 2027, as we reported yesterday.

First practice classification

Times as reported from the session timing by Grande Prêmio, Crash.net and GPFans, which all carry the same classification. The official Formula 1 classification had not yet been published at the time of writing.

Grid penalties already for Aston Martin

The FIA’s list of new power unit elements for Baku shows both Aston Martin drivers going over their allocation. Fernando Alonso has fitted a fifth combustion engine and a fifth turbocharger, one more than allowed, and Lance Stroll is on his sixth turbocharger, seventh energy store and sixth control electronics. Both face grid penalties for Saturday’s race. Charles Leclerc, whose engine situation Ferrari was still weighing on Wednesday, does not appear on that first list.

Our stopwatch view

The timesheet says Mercedes, the laps say it is closer than that. Russell’s 0.400 seconds came with a big tow, and Verstappen had already lost his first soft-tyre attempt to a lock-up. We would not be surprised to see Red Bull on top once the tows even out, with the caveat that nobody has shown their hand in qualifying trim yet.

Second practice is covered in our FP2 results and report. Every session is in our Azerbaijan Grand Prix schedule, and Pirelli’s harder tyre choice for Baku is explained in our tyre preview.