Azerbaijan GP: Sergio Perez tops FP1 in Baku

Sergio Perez picked up from where he left off in Baku for the first session of practice on Friday, with the Mexican topping the timesheets ahead of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen.

Perez spoke of how quickly you can go from hero to zero in Formula 1 in the build-up to this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with him obviously at risk of that happening after winning the Monaco Grand Prix and signing a new contract to keep him at Red Bull through 2024.

However, he said focus and doing the job properly can negate such potential problems and he’s certainly started in a manner that he’ll hope to maintain, going quickest of all in FP1.

Behind the Mexican, the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc as the Monegasque looks to get back to winning ways after some rotten luck in Spain and Monte Carlo, whilst Max Verstappen was third quickest.

Interestingly, the Red Bull appears to be fastest in sectors one and three at the moment, whilst the Ferrari shades things in sector two, with the Prancing Horse appearing to lack an advantage in a straight line in Baku.

Carlos Sainz was fourth fastest ahead of Fernando Alonso and then Lewis Hamilton who, at one point, complained he could not see the pit entry line such was the violence of porpoising he was experiencing in his Mercedes – he was far from the only man suffering bouncing in FP1.

Yuki Tsunoda went seventh quickest ahead of the other Mercedes of George Russell and his AlphaTauri team-mate Pierre Gasly, whilst Esteban Ocon was 10th fastest in the other Alpine car.

Issues, meanwhile, hit Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi with water cascading out of the side of the German’s Haas and the Canadian suffering a complete power loss in his Williams.