Norris tops Azerbaijan practice as McLaren pair lead, kerb incident halts session
Norris edges Piastri by 0.310 seconds in the opening practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix; a red flag disrupted the session after a loose kerb under Turn 16.
Lando Norris led Oscar Piastri to a McLaren one-two in the opening practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on Friday, the pair finishing well clear of the rest of the field. Norris clocked the fastest lap, 0.310 seconds quicker than his teammate, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell a little further back in third and fourth. Piastri, who starts the weekend with a 31-point lead over Norris in the drivers’ championship, managed 13 laps to Norris’s 18 as the session unfolded with its usual mix of rapid laps and interruptions.
A red flag stopped the session for about 20 minutes when a strip of rubber beneath a kerb at Turn 16 came loose, disrupting the running and limiting what could have been more informative running for the field. Officials halted the action to allow engineers to resolve the issue and for McLaren to fix a power-unit problem that had been detected on Piastri’s car on his first lap out of the pits. The stoppage also gave teams time to assess setup options for the remainder of the session.
Hamilton clipped the wall at Turn Three during a later run, damaging his front wing and taking on a front-left puncture. He finished 12th fastest, about 0.8 seconds off Norris. The kerb-related disruption came at a time when Norris and Piastri had shown strong pace early in the hour, with Piastri’s issue briefly limiting his track time but ultimately not derailing the McLaren pace at the moment.
Max Verstappen appeared poised to challenge for front-row pace late in the session but locked a wheel in the tricky downhill braking zone into Turn 15 and slid into the escape road, finishing seventh as the checkered flag waved. Carlos Sainz also reported an issue with rubber under Turn 16, and he ended up eighth fastest, ahead of the two Red Bulls of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar as the session drew to a close. The result left McLaren at the top of the sheet, with the rest of the field still mapping out significant setup and strategy differences ahead of qualifying.
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend runs from September 19-21, with the race scheduled for 12:00 BST on September 21. BBC Sport will provide live text updates on its website and app, and live coverage of practice and qualifying is available through its broadcast partners.