McLaren opens Baku weekend on top

Engine troubles and lengthy Red Flag delays weren’t enough to derail McLaren’s first outing around the streets of Baku, with Lando Norris setting the pace in FP1 to lead over Oscar Piastri.

Formula 1 action got back underway with the opening practice session of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend kicking off around the raw Baku City Circuit.

Few cars pounced as the light went green in the pitlane, including Liam Lawson, who made the most of the hour as he started on the softest of Pirelli’s designated compounds, the C6.

Bringing a range of the C6, C5, and C4 tyres, Pirelli hopes to create the opportunity for a two-stop race this weekend, with the 6km circuit historically proving to be relatively lenient on tyres during the 51-lap main event. 

The opening stint of FP1 was a short one, with Lawson setting his first representative time of a 1:45.806s during the first five laps prior to a Red Flag.

The delay lasted over 20 minutes, however, when the Kiwi was back on track, he quickly found his groove as he jumped into the top five, six-tenths behind the then-benchmark.

He set his fastest time of the hour during the final five minutes, with a 1:43.903s leaving him in P9 as the chequered flag waved on FP1.

It was a troubled start for the team chasing championship confirmation this weekend, with Norris called back into the pitlane to “remove something” — that ‘something’ being the pitot cover — while Piastri’s MCL39 faced a more costly hurdle just minutes later.

Warned of an engine issue over team radio, Piastri was told by race engineer Tom Stallard to activate recharge mode, ease off the throttle, avoid full load, and keep the revs down as he made his way around the circuit.

Back in the McLaren garage, Piastri was quick to jump out of the cockpit, removing his helmet and balaclava as his mechanics, along with the help of a Mercedes representative, got to work under the engine cover.

Helped by a well-timed Red Flag, Piastri avoided losing too much track time, rejoining the action as soon as the session went green thanks to his team’s thorough efforts.

Playing catch-up, Piastri’s first time of the session was a 1:44.852s, which left him 1.1 seconds behind his McLaren teammate.

With his previous engine troubles looking to be on the back burner, the Australian appeared in the top three before settling into second place on one of his final flying runs.

Despite a late heavy knock against the wall at Turn 15, the championship leader’s time of 1:43.014s allowed him to hold onto P2 as the chequered flag waved in Baku.

As for the rest of the field, coming to terms with the varied braking points throughout the circuit was the top priority, and a challenge for some in the opening minutes of FP1 when both Gabriel Bortoleto and Lewis Hamilton brought out yellow flags.

Having scored pole position four times around the Baku streets, Charles Leclerc had a much cleaner start to his session, jumping into the middle of a top three separated by just 0.096s after ten minutes of running. 

Norris blew that interval out to four-tenths as his time of 1:43.474s highlighted the start of the #4 picking up the pace, however, a Red Flag for an issue with the kerbs at Turns 16 and 17 halted his progress. 

It was a lengthy delay as the Baku marshals wrestled to ensure the stubborn corner was safe to handle the load of a Formula 1 car, before the session finally resumed with just 20 minutes remaining.

Across the board, improvements came thick and fast, however, no one could match the pace of the #4 McLaren.

Setting three personal best sectors on his fresh C6 tyres, Norris put over a second between himself and Max Verstappen in second place with a new benchmark of 1:42.704s.

On return, Hamilton informed the Ferrari pit wall that he had clipped the inside wall at Turn 5, resulting in one less endplate on his front wing and a punctured tyre. 

The wall at Turn 15 also felt the love as it had its fair share of kisses, with both Williams drivers brushing the wall as they tested the Baku City Circuit’s limits, while Verstappen opted to take to the run-off area as he carried too much speed into the narrow turn.

He wasn’t alone in relying on the escape roads in the final five minutes, with his rumoured future teammate Isack Hadjar also aborting his run just prior to entering the unforgiving Castle section.

He kept his VCARB 02 in one piece as the session came to a close, allowing both RB drivers to round out FP1 as the final two drivers in the top ten.

Leading the pack was, unsurprisingly, the McLaren duo.

Norris was the outright fastest driver of the hour, remaining unchallenged in FP1 to finish top of the leaderboard with a time of 1:42.704s, three tenths clear of Piastri.

Rounding out the top three, Charles Leclerc only just edged out George Russell, securing P3 by one thousandth of a second as the chequered flag fell in Baku.

The field will have just over two hours to debrief the disrupted session before FP2 takes place at 22:00 AEST tonight. 

Image: Formula 1

Free Practice 1 Results:

2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Weekend Schedule (AEST):

Friday, September 19th:

FP1: 18:30 – 19:30

FP2: 22:00 – 23:00

Saturday, September 20th:

FP3: 18:30 – 19:30

Qualifying: 22:00 – 23:00

Sunday, September 21st:

Race: 21:00

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