Russell tops opening F1 practice in Baku; Antonelli strikes technical issues

George Russell has topped Thursday's first practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after teammate and title leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli retired from the session with a hydraulics problem.

Antonelli completed just nine laps and was about to embark on his first tour on softs when he pulled off the road at the run-off zone at Turn 7 to switch off the car, with marshals spraying the rear of his Mercedes with extinguishing foam.

A virtual safety car was required to clear the stricken car, with Russell resuming on softs.

After a false start – he had to bail at the last moment into the Turn 3 run-off zone – he rocketed to top spot with a best time of 1m 45.387s thanks in part to an incidental slipstream from Fernando Alonso giving him an unbeatable time in the flat-out third sector.

Max Verstappen, the reigning Baku winner, got closest to the top but ended the hour 0.4s adrift – though a portion of that will have been due to Russell’s slipstream. Verstappen was quickest through the middle sector, which runs through the old town and comprises the track’s slowest corners.

Charles Leclerc was only 0.004s further adrift, having set the quickest time in the opening split, which is made of the 90-degree corners from Turn 1 to Turn 4. Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton was another 0.033s off the pace.

Despite his stoppage and despite having set his quickest time on hard tires, Antonelli ended the session fifth and 0.878s slower than his teammate.

It put him ahead of 2024 winner Oscar Piastri, who was 1.011s off the pace after a heavily disrupted session that saw him pit multiple times and complete only 16 laps for the hour after complaining of “unbelievable” brake vibrations on his opening laps.

McLaren was concerned about damage to his car, though it found nothing with its initial inspection. Another visit to the pits, however, and the team found bodywork damage at the front of the upgraded car that required rectification, keeping him garaged for most of the final 15 minutes.

He re-emerged with time enough to set one flying lap on softs, moving him to sixth ahead of Racing Bulls teammates Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad.

Lance Stroll was ninth quickest ahead of Audi teammates Gabriel Borotoleto and Nico Hulkenberg, who were spotted practicing the slipstream in their heavily upgraded cars.

Williams, with significant upgrades of its own, slotted into 12th and 13th with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, who were 1.51 and 1.55s off the pace respectively.

Lando Norris was also withdrawn from part of the session with bodywork damage to his McLaren, and though he resumed late, he didn’t use the soft tire, leaving him an unrepresentative 14th ahead of Oliver Bearman and Pierre Gasly.

Sergio Perez was the best-placed Cadillac driver, lapping 17th ahead of Franco Colapinto and Fernando Alonso.

Isack Hadjar retired from the session with only eight exploratory laps on the hard tire. The newly re-signed Frenchman complained of “crazy pulling” on the brakes initially but later reported that his engine was broken before limping back to the pits.

Despite not setting a representative time, he ended the session ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas.

Bottas will see the stewards after the session for an alleged yellow flag infringement.