CHARLES LECLERC TOPS FRIDAY PRACTICE SESSIONS

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc went quickest in the second free practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, outpacing team-mate Sebastian Vettel by more than three tenths of a second. Lewis Hamilton was third for Mercedes ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

The Monegasque’s best lap, which deposed team-mate Vettel from P1, was delivered on the second push lap of his run. His lap put him 0.324s ahead of Vettel and almost seven tenths of a second ahead of Hamilton.

The session saw a flurry of early activity as teams attempted to make up for the first session was lost following George Russell’s collision with a loose drain cover, which resulted in a full circuit check by race officials.

Their enthusiasm was damped, however, when Racing Point’s Lance Stroll hit the wall at Turn 3, bringing out the red flags after just 15 minutes. The Canadian driver had a momentary loss of control under braking for Turn 2 and a moment of indecision as he appeared to at first attempt to turn in before thinking better of it. His late attempt top back out of the corner mean that he ran out of space on the way to the escape road and he hit the barriers, sapping off the front left wheel. Unable to make it back to the pits the red flags were show and running was halted for just over 10 minutes.

When the session resumed, teams swiftly moved to the qualifying simulation topped by Leclerc. Verstappen was one of the last to do performance run and he took fourth place 0.252s behind Hamilton.

There was more drama later in the session, as teams’ attention turned to longer runs. With 26 minutes remaining Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat lost control on exit at Turn 7. The back end of his car slid out and hit the wall and after bouncing back the front left also went into the wall. Kvyat had earlier shown good pace, however, and he ended the session in sixth place, behind the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.

Kvyat was separated from Toro Rosso team-mate Alex Albon by McLaren’s Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard finished 1.3s off Leclerc and 0.033s ahead of Albon. The rookie Toro Rosso driver had a good session, beating ninth-placed Red Bull driver Pierre Gasly by 0.024s. Tenth place went to Lando Norris in the second McLaren.

2019 AZERBAIJAN GP - PRACTICE 2
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:42.872		28
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:43.196	+ 0.324	28
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:43.541	+ 0.669	31
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:43.793	+ 0.921	24
5	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	1:44.003	+ 1.131	31
6	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:44.177	+ 1.305	9
7	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren	1:44.183	+ 1.311	27
8	Alex Albon	Toro Rosso	1:44.216	+ 1.344	33
9	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull	1:44.240	+ 1.368	24
10	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:44.295	+ 1.423	32
11	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:44.901	+ 2.029	25
12	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	1:45.367	+ 2.494	31
13	Sergio Perez	Racing Point	1:45.436	+ 2.564	28
14	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	1:45.482	+ 2.610	30
15	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:45.483	+ 2.611	15
16	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:45.618	+ 2.746	31
17	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:46.717	+ 3.845	24
18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point	1:47.875	+ 5.003	8
19	Robert Kubica	Williams	1:48.111	+ 5.239	27
20	George Russel	Williams	/	/	0
HYBRID HISTORY - BAKU 2016 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:44.223 2017 Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 1:43.362 2018 Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull - 1:42.795 2019 Charles Leclerc - Ferrari - 1:42.872
@MakFormula1 - Republic of Macedonia

PRACTICE 1

2019 AZERBAIJAN GP - PRACTICE 1
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:47.497		5
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:49.598	+ 2.101	4
3	Romain Grosjean	Haas	/	/	1
4	Lando Norris	McLaren	/	/	1
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	/	/	1
6	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	/	/	1
7	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren	/	/	1
8	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	/	/	1
9	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	/	/	1
10	Robert Kubica	Williams	/	/	1
11	George Russel	Williams	/	/	3
12	Alex Albon	Toro Rosso	/	/	1
13	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	/	/	1
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	/	/	1
15	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull	/	/	1
16	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	/	/	1
17	Sergio Perez	Racing Point	/	/	1
18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point	/	/	1
HYBRID HISTORY - BAKU 2016 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:46.435 2017 Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 1:44.410 2018 Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes AMG - 1:44.242 2019 Charles Leclerc - Ferrari - 1:47.497(stopped)
@MakFormula1 - Republic of Macedonia