The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is live on 5 Live and the BBC Sport site [Getty Images]
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took lead at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the 4th year in a row as Lando Norris suffered a blow to his hopes of picking up speed on title competing Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
Norris, who is attempting to close a 62-point space to Verstappen over the last 8 races of the year, came across yellow flags on his last lap in the very first session and deals with a challenging Sunday.
He certified 17th, however will begin 16th since Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who certified 13th, has actually been disqualified from receiving a technical violation.
Verstappen remains in much better shape however might still handle just 6th fastest as Red Bull continued to have a hard time for rate compared to their competitors.
Verstappen’s issues – his team-mate Sergio Perez was 2 locations ahead of him in 4th location – ought to have offered Norris a best chance to capitalise.
The Briton’s team-mate Oscar Piastri certified 2nd to Leclerc and ahead of the 2nd Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
Norris’ problems in the very first session imply he will be attempting to restrict the damage rather than cause it on the Dutchman.
Leclerc, who was 0.321 seconds quicker than Piastri, will be opting for his 2nd win in a row after triumph in Ferrari’s home Italian Grand Prix 2 weeks earlier.
In spite of his unrivaled speed over one lap in Baku, he has actually never ever won a grand prix around the streets of the city on the coasts of the Caspian Sea.
“In the past we have actually been having a hard time on race rate however this year we are much better in the races so I am enthusiastic we can lastly do it tomorrow,” Leclerc stated.
Leclerc has had an incident-packed weekend, crashing in very first practice on Friday and after that suffering issues with his vehicle in the 2nd session, 2 issues that cost him about half his normal running time on the very first day of the weekend.
“It is among my preferred tracks. I truly like it,” Leclerc stated, including that it had actually “not been a simple weekend”.
He stated: “I was a bit not anxious and I understood we needed to comprise a long time, however the speed was constantly there and in certifying it was everything about attempting to remain as far as possible from the walls and after that in the last lap I went all out a bit more and the lap time came extremely well.”
Mercedes chauffeur George Russell certified 5th, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton seventh, ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
Franco Colapinto took ninth for Williams, ahead of British-born Thai Alex Albon, an excellent efficiency from the Argentine on only his 2nd getaway for Williams after being prepared in to change the sacked American Logan Sargeant a race back.