EL3 in Baku: Vettel regains color

The Briton takes in his wake Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari), Max Verstappen (Red Bull), and his teammate Valtteri Bottas, a tenth covering all four men. Sergio Pérez continues to set an encouraging pace for Force India by taking the 6th best time. The Mexican is ahead Kevin Magnussen, visibly more at ease than his comrade Romain Grosjean (15th) at Haas for the time being.

In difficulty since the start of the season, Williams also regains momentum and places its two drivers in the top 10 with Lance stroll 8th, two places ahead of Sergey Sirotkin. Big downside for the British team: the Russian's session ended in the wall located outside turn 3 10 minutes from the checkerboard. His FW41 is quite damaged at the front right, which will force his mechanics to race against time to allow him to participate in qualifying which begins in less than 2 hours.

Esteban Ocon finished 9th, while Fernando Alonso et McLaren fail at the gates of the Top 10. Daniel Ricciardo, who was the most spirited on Friday, saw his end of the session compromised by the red flag raised following Sirotkin's accident. The Red Bull Australian had to settle for 12th fastest time, ahead of Pierre Gasly, best representative Toro Rosso-Honda, and Charles Leclerc.

Discrete results for Renault with the 16th and 17th beats of Carlos Sainz et Nico Hulkenberg. Note, however, that the two RS18s mainly ran on Super-Soft rubber when their rivals were all running on Ultra-Soft.

The qualifying session will begin at 17:00 p.m. local time (15:00 p.m. in France). It will be followed live with commentary on CARhebdo.fr.

The championship leader is on top heading into qualifying

Both @WilliamsRacing cars make the top 10 #AzerbaijanGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/FS59MClnx3

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 28th