Max Verstappen fastest in Azerbaijan Grand Prix first practice

<figure class="gs-u-mt0 gs-u-mb-alt+ story-body__media story-body__media--figure qa-story-body-media story-body__media--lead" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$image-0"><span class="gs-u-display-block story-body__media" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$image-0.0"><span class="gs-u-display-block gs-o-responsive-image" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$image-0.0.0"><img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/624/cpsprodpb/6720/production/_118800462_charlesleclerc.jpg" sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 800px, (min-width: 900px) 624px, (min-width: 600px) 976px, (min-width: 400px) 624px, 400px" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/400/cpsprodpb/6720/production/_118800462_charlesleclerc.jpg 400w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/624/cpsprodpb/6720/production/_118800462_charlesleclerc.jpg 624w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/800/cpsprodpb/6720/production/_118800462_charlesleclerc.jpg 800w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/976/cpsprodpb/6720/production/_118800462_charlesleclerc.jpg 976w" alt="Charles Leclerc" class="qa-srcset-image" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$image-0.0.0.0"></span></span></figure> <p role="introduction" class="qa-introduction gel-pica-bold" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-1"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-1.0">Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped a tight and unrepresentative first practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of the Ferrari drivers.</span></p> <div data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2" readability="10"> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2.0"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2.0.0">Verstappen, leading Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton by four points in the championship, was 0.043 seconds faster than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.</span></p> </div> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.0">Carlos Sainz was third quickest, 0.294secs behind his Ferrari team-mate, ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.</span></p> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-4"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-4.0">Hamilton was down in seventh place but made a mistake on a faster lap.</span></p> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-6"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-6.0">And Lando Norris appeared to have the potential to have topped the session, the McLaren driver on a very fast lap before spinning at Turn 16.</span></p> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-7"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-7.0">At the time, Norris was a second up on team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who had just gone fastest with a lap that left him fifth overall at the end of the session, 0.5secs off Verstappen’s pace-setting time.</span></p> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-8"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-8.0">Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly split Ricciardo and Hamilton in fifth place.</span></p> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-9"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-9.0">Hamilton and Norris were just two of the several drivers who went off on the slippery Baku streets. They were joined by the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, both Gasly and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda and Haas drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.</span></p> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-10"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-10.0">Tsunoda’s incident caused a brief comedy moment. Rather than spin-turn the car, the traditional approach to extricating oneself from a Baku escape road, he tried to do a three-point turn.</span></p> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-11"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-11.0">But an F1 car does not have the steering lock to do that, and the Japanese spent minutes going backwards and forwards while race director Michael Masi deployed caution flags.</span></p> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-12"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-12.0">It prompted Alpha Tauri’s sporting director to go on the radio and apologise to Masi, saying: “He’s doing an Austin Powers at the moment,” a reference to the famous movie in which actor Mike Myers does a comedy multi-point turn in a buggy in a tight corridor.</span></p> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-13"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-13.0">The number of incidents made it difficult to get a read of the competitive order.</span></p> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-14"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-14.0">McLaren did appear to be very competitive – as Verstappen and Sainz had suggested they would be after the last race in Monaco, calling their car a “rocket”. And Hamilton clearly had more pace than the timing sheets suggested.</span></p> <p class="" data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-15"><span data-reactid=".2bjc15gqrt8.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-15.0">Behind Hamilton, Norris, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas completed the top 10.</span></p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://patabook.com/sports/2021/06/04/max-verstappen-fastest-in-azerbaijan-grand-prix-first-practice/">Max Verstappen fastest in Azerbaijan Grand Prix first practice</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://patabook.com/sports">Patabook Sports</a>.</p>

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