Azerbaijan GP: Sergio Perez once again fastest in final session in Baku

Sergio Perez went fastest in the final practice session at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku to further strengthen his claim as a pole position contender for qualifying later this afternoon.

It is once again a Ferrari against Red Bull fight this weekend, with Perez topping both FP1 and FP3, whilst Charles Leclerc went fastest in FP2 yesterday evening.

Indeed, it appears as though those two are the ones currently most in with a chance of taking pole this Saturday afternoon, with Max Verstappen yet to break into the top two in a practice session – though of course the Dutchman has it in him to turn on the style and go fastest.

Those three have locked out the top three in every practice, then, with Carlos Sainz sitting fourth in the other Ferrari, ahead of the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo.

The MCL36 looked pretty settled along the big main straight in Baku, contrary to several of their competitors with porpoising having a noticeable effect, and the team would certainly take the third row all for themselves in qualifying for tomorrow’s race.

Behind them, Pierre Gasly made it a third top-ten time in Baku practice sessions to underline the AlphaTauri’s promise this weekend, whilst George Russell went 8th fastest ahead of Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel.

Outside the top 10, Lewis Hamilton was 12th quickest with him complaining about a lack of rear and it looks as though Mercedes have some work to do if they want to get back to being best of the rest behind Red Bull and Ferrari, as they were in Barcelona, at the moment.

Qualifying gets underway at 3:15pm, with a 15-minute delay being inherited after FP3 started late by the same amount of time due to a track clean-up operation.