This session has finished. No further updates will be posted.
Here’s our report on a disrupted first practice session.
FP1 has finished and Lando Norris is fastest. Report to follow.
Piastri makes it a McLaren one-two, three tenths of a second off his team mate.
Verstappen locks up at turn 15, heads into the run-off, spins around and rejoins.
Ferrari have quickly got Hamilton up and running again on a fresh set of tyres. His team mate is now second-fastest, half a second off Norris.
Alexander Albon touches the barrier at the exit of turn 15 with his right-rear wheel.
Ferrari push Hamilton in with damage to his front wing on the left-hand side from contact with the barrier at turn six, and a puncture at the same corner.
Lewis Hamilton is limping in with suspected damage.
Norris lops a full second off his best time so far with a 1’42.704. Piastri is 1.1s off him in third, Verstappen separating them.
Liam Lawson jumps up to fourth in the Racing Bulls. Piastri is last after his delay earlier but gets a clean lap in to go ninth.
After a 26-minute delay, we finally have cars circulating again.
The session is finally about to resume and many of the drivers are queueing up at the pit lane exit.
The session is still suspended. Carlos Sainz Jnr appeared to pull up part of the kerb at the exit of turn 16 which is now being repaired.
Something appears to still be amiss at the track as we’ve got another yellow flag now.
The session has resumed but the track is quiet for now.
Russell reports a “serious amount of bottoming in the straight.”
Pierre Gasly: “There’s a piece of carbon on the last corner.”
The McLaren driver is on a quick one now but has to adjust his line at the exit of turn 16 where he finds a piece of debris. He still improves to a 1’43.747. The red flags are out.
Norris leads the times for now on a 1’44.274 on softs. Max Verstappen is within a tenth of a second of that and Yuki Tsunoda is encouragingly close in his Red Bull, within three tenths of a second of his team mate.
George Russell: “I can smell a bit of burning. I think it’s the brakes.”
Replays show McLaren left a cover on an antenna on the front of Norris’s car.
McLaren are now telling Oscar Piastri to “keep low revs”. Not a smooth start for them.
Meanwhile Gabriel Bortoleto has a brief run up an escape run, then continues. Expect to see a lot of that in this session.
The FOM cameraman’s view of McLaren’s pit work is obscured by mechanics who didn’t appear to be doing any work and may have been stationed there just to hide what was being done.
Lando Norris joins the track but is told to pit so McLaren can “remove something”. Is this intentional or a possible “unsafe release situation”?
None of the teams are running junior drivers in their cars during this session, which is typical for this unusual, low-grip, high-speed street circuit where building up confidence is extremely important.
The first practice session for the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is coming up next.
2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
- Another F1 track record set to fall in Baku – if it stays dry
- Verstappen and Tsunoda praise Red Bull’s improved balance in Baku
- Leclerc insists McLaren are far ahead despite Ferrari’s strong practice pace
- Norris admits crash will be ‘costly – but I’d rather push and find the limits’
- Piastri avoids grid drop for yellow flag incident with Gasly in second practice