George Russell led the opening practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix while a technical problem delayed his team mate.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli stopped with an hydraulic problem on his Mercedes after nine laps of the Baku City Circuit.Russell’s best lap, aided by a significant slipstream from a rival car, was exactly four-tenths of a second quicker than the next-closest driver, Max Verstappen. However Russell’s session almost came to an early end when he abandoned his attempt to take turn three and swerved into the run-off area, narrowly missing the barrier as he did.
Verstappen began the session strongly. The Red Bull driver was fastest over the opening 10 minutes, running on hard tyres, before Antonelli beat his time.
Despite his stoppage, the world championship leader ended the session with the fifth-fastest time. The two Ferrari drivers also beat him, Charles Leclerc only fractionally slower than Verstappen.
Liam Lawson returned to Racing Bulls after his brief stint at Red Bull’s senior team and set the sixth-fastest time. Isack Hadjar, back in the car Lawson drove in the last three races, was only able to do eight laps before Red Bull told him to stop due to a technical problem.
Nico Hulkenberg put his heavily updated Audi seventh-fastest. He briefly came to a stop near the end of the session but was able to resume.
Oscar Piastri set the eighth-fastest time with his final lap of the session. His running in McLaren’s updated MCL40 was disrupted when the team identified a potential problem on his team mate’s car and told him to stop, though Piastri was able to rejoin the track for a final lap.
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The final places in the top 10 went to Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, the latter also stopping with a fault at the pit lane exit near the end of the session.
Carlos Sainz Jnr was the quickest of the two Williams drivers in their updated car. However he had to stop in the pits early in the session due to a fire on his right-rear brake, potentially related to the new duct furniture Williams has introduced as part of its extensive reworking of the FW48.
2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix first practice result
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