Azerbaijan GP - Free Practice 1Lando Norris goes from 'doing the rubber' and leads the free practice in Baku
The British driver recorded the best times on both sides of an interruption of almost half an hour, after a large piece of rubber that held a track curb came loose. Carlos Sainz finished in eighth position and Fernando Alonso in 15th.
Rubber is a recurring topic of conversation in the racing world, accepted as a synonym for tire, but 'the word' gained renewed prominence in the first free practice of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where Oscar Piastri was the testimonial leader of a session split in two by an incident on the track that made this session even more irrelevant than usual.
As usual in Baku, the activity began generally but faintly, which did not prevent Lando Norris from setting the first reference with a 1:43.7. After just 14 minutes, the session was halted due to a large piece of rubber partially coming loose that held the curb on the outside of turn 16, lifted by Carlos Sainz's car. Although the red flag was officially raised after eight minutes, activity remained halted while different points on the track were reviewed, although the work was not shown on screen.
Finally, after 25 minutes of interruption, the session resumed with 21 minutes left on the clock, prompting a flood of cars on track and times. Norris quickly lowered his time by a second to 1:42.704, which was only challenged in the final minutes by Oscar Piastri, who was three-tenths behind after 'scraping' the wall at turn 15. A previous lap from Charles Leclerc left his Ferrari half a second behind, although a later attempt did not yield an improvement due to traffic in the intermediate sector.
The big names were not spared from incidents, with Lewis Hamilton having a clash with an inner wall that caused a puncture and damage to the front wing, while Max Verstappen had to perform parking maneuvers in one of the track's escape routes. There was no time for more, with George Russell finishing fourth ahead of a streaking Alex Albon and a Yuki Tsunoda who managed to beat Verstappen's best time.
Sainz had good records during the session, beyond his incident, finishing in a solid eighth position, while Fernando Alonso went relatively unnoticed in 15th position, 1.4 seconds off the leaders. Despite this, little to nothing recorded in this session remains representative, being clearly split into two very disjointed halves. That's how things are on a temporary track, especially if you tie your shoelaces with dental floss.
Fotos: McLaren F1