Baku – EL1: Sergio Perez still on cloud nine

A victory in Monaco ten days ago, a two-year extension at Red Bull in the process… everything is going well for Sergio Perez. In Baku, the Mexican continued his momentum by setting the best time of the free practice 1 of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 1'45″476. He anticipated the Ferrari de Charles Leclerc (+0″127) and his teammate’s Red Bull Max Verstappen (+0″334). Carlos Sainz closes the rear by half a second, while the rest of the peloton is beyond a second compared to the reference time established by Perez. 

As is often the case when the cars arrive on a circuit, it was Max Verstappen who set the pace. The Dutchman set a first mark in 1'49″574 on Medium tires while the Mercedes bounced like kangaroos at more than two seconds. The Dutchman then improved his mark by almost a second and a half. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc came close to 67 thousandths of his time, but on hard tires. 

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- Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) June 10, 2022

We didn't have to wait long to see the first technical problems with the single-seaters. After only eight minutes, major water pressure problems were visible on the car de Mick Schumacher, with massive leaks from the radiators. As a precaution, the German stopped his car. In the process, Lewis Hamilton was offered a little turn in the loophole after a wheel lock, while the car of Nicholas latifi went out on its own, fortunately in a slow sector.

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Then in the second part of the session, Red Bull, Ferrari and the majority of the teams brought out their drivers in Softs. Here again, it was Verstappen who signed the best mark but he was immediately and definitively beaten by Sergio Perez, who signed a huge first sector. In the first sector marked by several 90° bends and a few straights, Red Bull has a clear advantage, while the very winding sector 2 unsurprisingly favors the Ferraris. The Scuderia, on the other hand, concedes a few tenths in sector 3 on the Red Bull, but it is Fernando Alonso who finished with the record in the third sector of Baku.

The Spaniard also finished best of the others in 5th place. Alpine indeed appears to be in the mix in the battle for big points with Mercedes and Alpha Tauri, as drivers from all three teams feature in the top 10. Lando Norris once again outrageously dominated his teammate Daniel Ricciardo by sticking to him for more than a second. Note that several drivers complained on numerous occasions about the rebound and the wind, mainly on the straight which concludes the lap. We also saw the upper flap of Verstappen's car move a lot. As a reminder, the second free practice session will be held at 16 p.m. French time in Baku.