If the Free Practice 1 of a traditional Grand Prix is usually small, in this case, in the new sprint race format, with few practice sessions available before today’s qualification (3:00 pm) and no sessions of practice on Saturday when the ‘qualy sprint’ and the sprint race, this Friday’s FP1 at the Baku F1 GP is completely unlike any other event. He has had more emotion than any other Free 1 so far this season. It was the only session where all the drivers could test their settings before the action started, and that showed on the track, with the drivers putting in work on the different rubber compounds and attacking the end with the soft for a few laps. With that rubber, Max Verstappen took first position in the final minutes, sending out a power warning after his team-mate ‘Checo’ Pérez passed in several attempts and Leclerc reappearing in his final test after several braking passes in this session.
Verstappen set a 1’42″315, beating Leclerc’s Ferrari by 0″037, Pérez (3rd) by 0″139 and Carlos Sainz (4th) by 0″548 and Norris (5th, with many improvements in his McLaren) at 0″ 810. Ferrari wants to fight for pole position taking advantage of his top speed on the straight, and then, in the race, it will be another story because of his greater degradation and the worst running speed shown he in the first three rounds Carlos Sainz should have a margin for qualifying. In his first attempt at the soft, he was handicapped by a yellow flag caused by a braking pass by a Leclerc who made several mistakes .The Spaniard seems more comfortable in the car, without mistakes, but he must show his speed in one turn in qualifying.
Alonso, the DRS problems
There, Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin was also expected, but his DRS problem lingered in the second part of the session. Fernando and Lance Stroll debuted their long-awaited new low-load rear wing at this Baku GP in the hope that this part will allow them to reduce their deficit to their top speed rivals in a straight line, which until now has been the car’s main weakness.green in the first three races.
Testing a new part in a sprint format weekend like this, with a free practice session, can lead to significant loss of time in the pits if something goes wrong. And in this case, Fernando Alonso was unable to attempt a quick lap on the soft rubber before qualifying this afternoon.
Stroll finished second with his time on the medium rubber, between the two Red Bulls, just 2 tenths off the time set by Max on that compound with 17 minutes to go. But everything will change when the soft tire is mounted. There, Lance finished 7th, 1″140 behind the best time. Alonso returned to the track in the last 4 minutes, with hard rubber, and despite the difference between the compounds, he finished in 8th in 1″245, only one-tenth of his companion. That Asturian time made it clear the huge margin that Aston Martin still has with soft rubber and Stroll’s time should not be any representative.
In this way, Alonso will have to start qualifying today (3:00 pm/DAZN F1) without having tried that soft tire, having to learn suddenly in the middle of the ‘qualy’ in an Aston Martin that should is up against the back of Red Bull with Ferrari and Mercedes.
Now, the drivers must prepare for a qualifying session on Friday that will dictate the grid for Sunday (the result of Saturday’s sprint race will not change the Sunday grid). Today’s qualy can be very exciting. The teams have had very little time to test the settings, many will come without control at all, and on top of that, the track conditions, still dirty, will change. Traffic must also play an important role, especially in the crooked and congested section of sector 2. It is expected to be a tense qualifier.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
