F1 takes to the historical streets of Baku for the 2024 Azerbaijan GP.. With a real title fight on our hands, can Red Bull reclaim the top spot?
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Before the green flag went down for FP1, it’s important to note that Red Bull has brought a floor upgrade to Baku this weekend, eager to inch closer to the rear wing of the McLaren’s.
Session Begins:
The F1 2024 Azerbaijan GP FP1 goes underway with a burst of drivers taking to the track as soon as the FP1 session began with Oscar Piastri reporting very low grip conditions on the track over team radio. Drivers wasted no time testing the waters of track conditions with only three cars in the garage. Lando Norris was not the only papaya car to report issues except this was with the car. Interestingly, he reported an issue with his steering; this could be as simple as a need for recalibration or something more serious, similar to Max Verstappen’s detrimental under-steer issues last weekend in Monza. the first recorded time to top the sheets was the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc; the team are likely eager to elongate their streak of impressive performance since their home race win. The Monegasque driver set a 1:48.430. This was later overshadowed by Piastri and Hamilton, dropping him down to P3 speed. Meanwhile, Bottas appeared to have a shunt with his steering and went off the track however he safely rejoined with no issue.
A rather distraught Lance Stroll reported some cryptic complaints over the radio stating that “This is not a car” indicating that the driver was having some serious issues on the track.
Red Flag:
An unexpected red flag came down just 15 minutes into the session. The session came to halt due to suspected unsafe track conditions with large pieces of debris and dust. the culprit for the red flag was revealed to be a small piece of metal laying on the track at turn 12.
Session Resumes:
The green flag went back out at the 20 minute mark of the session with Max Verstappen holding the benchmark time of 1:47.214. The team radio drama continued with another driver of Esteban Ocon reporting problem, his issue was not specified at the time but sounded rather urgent. Ocon’s session came to a close as his car came limping back into the pits. Meanwhile, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz narrowly missed the wall after a big lock up, coming off the track and swiftly rejoining without damage.
Leclerc Crashes:
Unfortunately for Charles, it appears that he missed the apex at turn 15 and entered the corner with just too much speed. Sadly, this put his Ferrari in the barriers thus ending his 2024 Azerbaijan GP practice run but the driver reported that he is okay and got out of the car with no trouble. With all cars once again flocking back to the pits, patiently awaiting yet another green light. It was revealed that Ocon’s earlier unexpected retirement was due to a power unit failure.
After a swift recovery of Leclerc’c wreck at turn 15, the cars were back on track once again, hoping for no further interruptions. Nico Hulkenberg in the Haas played a risky game attempting to put his car ahead of Franco Colapinto in the pit exit. Despite being out of the session, Leclerc held the top time of 1:46.608 at the time of the green light. For this second green flag, the majority of cars bolted on the softs on to try and get some solid lap times in on these high track evolution conditions.
A Third Red Flag:
The 2024 Azerbaijan FP1 session was turning out to be extremely turbulent with a staggering third red flag; this time caused by the Williams of Franco Colapinto, putting his car into the wall at turn 4. Thankfully, the driver came out of the car reporting that he was OK. With just 15 minutes left of the session, drivers were under pressure to set some solid lap times with the amount of disruptions we have had this session. FP1 came to a swift resume after impressive work from marshals to quickly recover the Williams from turn 4. Hamilton spent a comfortable amount of time across the session dominating the time sheets with Norris in close second.
The F1 2024 Azerbaijan GP FP1 session was full of drama with a shocking three red flags, really stunting the efforts of drivers to get the fastest times. As well as three red flags there were also three retirements but after all the chaos, Max Verstappen topped the times in the very last minute of the session in a surprising twist.
Featured Image credit: Red Bull content pool
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