George Russell beat Max Verstappen by exactly four tenths of a second in first practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but the Mercedes garage spent the back half of the hour staring at the other side of the box. Kimi Antonelli, the championship leader, coasted to a halt at Turn 7 with his brakes smoking and hydraulic pressure gone, triggering a virtual safety car and costing him roughly 35 minutes of running around a circuit that punishes anyone short of laps.
Russell’s 1:45.387, set on the softs midway through the session with a tow from Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin down Baku’s kilometre-long run to Turn 1, was the only lap in the 1:45s. Charles Leclerc split the difference behind Verstappen, finishing 0.404s off Russell — four thousandths adrift of the Red Bull — with Lewis Hamilton fourth, 0.437s back in the second Ferrari.
A slipstream, and a session nobody completed cleanly
Baku rewards the tow more than any circuit on the calendar, and Russell used it. That makes the headline margin softer than it looks: Verstappen set his best on his third attempt on a single set of softs, running a heavier fuel-load programme around Red Bull’s new floor and revised sidepods, and was quick on the harder compounds throughout. Leclerc and Hamilton were within half a tenth of each other, which is roughly where Ferrari have been at street circuits all year.
Almost nobody banked a clean run. Antonelli’s hard-tyre time was good enough for fifth, 0.878s down, before he lost the car’s hydraulics on an out-lap as Mercedes prepared to fit softs. Oscar Piastri was sixth but reported brake vibration he described as twice as bad as anything he had felt before, and McLaren pulled him in for precautionary checks. Carlos Sainz came in with his rear brakes on fire. Arvid Lindblad and Gabriel Bortoleto both stopped at Turn 7 late on.
McLaren’s session was the strangest of all. Both MCL40s spent long spells in the garage while the team inspected an upgrade package, and Lando Norris ran with a makeshift fix holding his bargeboard arrangement together. He completed 14 laps and finished 14th. Isack Hadjar, back after a three-race absence with a wrist injury, managed eight laps before an engine problem ended his afternoon; he did not rejoin.
Reliability, not pace, is Mercedes’ problem
Antonelli arrives in Baku on 292 points, 81 clear of Russell. On raw speed, a Mercedes one-two in Friday’s qualifying would surprise nobody — the W17 has been the reference car on low-grip surfaces since the summer. What the standings cannot absorb is a mechanical retirement, and Thursday’s failure is the kind that lingers.
“The bigger concern is why they had the issue,” Sky Sports F1 analyst Jamie Chadwick said. “We knew reliability was a big talking point for Mercedes earlier in the season; it seems to have been in a much better place the last few races especially, but that’s going to be the biggest concern.”
That is the correct read. The lost track time is recoverable — Baku is a circuit drivers learn quickly and where set-up work carries over from one session to the next. A repeat on Saturday is not recoverable. Antonelli has led this championship since the European leg by converting every finish into a podium rather than by winning races outright, a model that collapses the moment a car stops.
Nine drivers, one weekend that could decide plenty
Nine drivers remain mathematically alive in the title fight: Antonelli, Russell (211), Hamilton (191), Norris (186), Leclerc (167), Verstappen (145), Piastri (120), Hadjar (71) and Liam Lawson (59). The realistic list is shorter. Baku’s history says otherwise, though — this is a track that has produced a first-time winner, a leader’s tyre failure two laps from victory, and safety cars in nearly every running.
Watch three things across the rest of the weekend. Whether Mercedes can explain the hydraulic failure before Antonelli commits to qualifying. Whether McLaren’s upgrade is raceable, given Norris took only 14 laps and still needs the points more than anyone behind him. And whether Verstappen’s harder-tyre pace, on a car with fresh aerodynamic parts, translates once the tow disappears in qualifying trim.
Second practice follows later today, with qualifying on Friday and the race on Saturday.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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