Red Bull’s Max Verstappen surprisingly took the fastest time in third and final practice for F1’s Azerbaijan GP, pipping Mercedes driver George Russell and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton on Baku’s tricky street circuit.
Verstappen took command at the very end of the one-hour session as teams switched to qualifying runs, defying Mercedes’ favourite status in Baku by catching a big slipstream to go fastest.
FP3, held in less representative conditions than qualifying later on Friday afternoon, got off to a quiet start, with the Alpines leading the early running some way off Thursday’s FP2 pace. The big-hitters started flexing their collective muscle 15 minutes into the session with Charles Leclerc’s second attempt on softs – yielding a 1m45.564s – demoting Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s effort.
As drivers tried to hone their slipstreaming timing for qualifying, with the Baku City Circuit’s giant 2km straight making a tow a crucial element of a competitive lap, Red Bull’s Verstappen lunged to first place only to be deposed by Hamilton’s 1m45.093s.
Conditions appeared to be gustier than on Friday as race control deployed a brief virtual safety car for a tree branch which was swept onto the track. The wind also made cars less predictable to drive. Verstappen reported a Red Bull that was “jumping like a kangaroo” before going deep into the Turn 15 runoff, one of several drivers to make good use of Baku’s escape roads.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was not so lucky as he tagged the wall in Turn 1, which prompted the Canadian to park the car.
Mercedes, which was ominously quick on Friday, started mixing it up at the halfway mark with Antonelli pipping Leclerc by half a tenth courtesy of a 1m45.046s lap, before Russell claimed top spot with a 1m44.715s lap – both on medium tyres rather than softs.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
The Silver Arrows then showed their hands on the softest tyre compound as Russell put down a 1m44.177s marker with 15 minutes to go. As Russell shaved off some time with his subsequent 1m44.021s tour, Antonelli conceded 0.252s to his team-mate.
Verstappen benefitted from a huge slipstream to split the Mercedes cars in second, flattering the real performance of the Red Bull on a weekend set to be dominated by the championship leaders, and the Dutchman ultimately set a 1m43.922s lap to top the session.
Russell could likely have gone quicker still, however, but locked up the fronts into Turn 1 before going straight on in Turn 7, managing to bring the car to a halt without tapping the wall.
With a last-minute effort Hamilton pipped Antonelli to third, followed by Leclerc and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. McLaren’s low-profile weekend continued with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in seventh and eighth despite the team’s upgrades to improve its low-speed cornering.
The returning Isack Hadjar claimed ninth for Red Bull ahead of the second Alpine car of Franco Colapinto.
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