F1 Azerbaijan GP: Sergio Perez tops first practice in Baku
10th June 2022Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez topped the first practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, one-tenth ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
How practice unfolded…
After five minutes into FP1, the usual front runners, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Perez, occupied the top spot in P1 and P2 respectively. However, the Virtual Safety Car was soon brought out as Haas’ Mick Schumacher suffered a terminal water leak. As a result, the young German was forced to retire at the end of the castle section early on.
The Williams of Nicholas Latifi was the second retirement from FP1 as his power unit died on him. As the car smoked away, the Canadian was found stranded in the run off area at turn six. The VSC was once again deployed as the track marshals entered the track to push away the stationary FW44.
Once the session went back under green-flag conditions, Red Bull looked to have the best package as the RB18 seemed to be the car which was least affected by bouncing down the main straight. Whereas, both the Ferrari and Mercedes cars seemed to be impacted with porpoising issues.
This was showcased on the timing board as both Verstappen and Perez topped P1 and P2 respectively, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was P3 and Carlos Sainz sat in P6.
As the field started their soft tyre runs, talk shifted towards the rear wing of Verstappen which seemed to vertically shake erratically. Compared to his teammate, the Dutchman’s DRS flap seemed to struggle more under load, down the main straight, than Perez’s. Potentially due to the DRS issues, with 20-minutes left on the clock, Perez topped the leaderboard with Verstappen three-tenths off, in P2.
By the end of the first practice session, Perez topped the session 0.127s ahead of Leclerc who finished P2 while the defending world champion, Verstappen, finished P3 – three-tenths off his teammates pace.
That’s it for the article: F1 Azerbaijan GP: Sergio Perez tops first practice in Baku! What did you think of Max Verstappen’s rear wing? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula One here!
- F1 Azerbaijan GP Preview
- Five shocking moments from F1 Azerbaijan GP
- F1 Monaco GP: Charles Leclerc takes pole as Perez crashes
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
