Max Verstappen Dominates Chaotic Baku FP1 as Crashes and Red Flags Abound

Max Verstappen demonstrates Red Bull's strong performance in the first practice session at Baku, despite multiple crashes.

Max Verstappen led the first practice session at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which was marred by several crashes, including incidents involving Charles Leclerc and F1 rookie Franco Colapinto.

The current world champion clocked in at 1 minute 45.546 seconds on soft tires, narrowly beating former title contender Lewis Hamilton by 0.313 seconds, setting a formidable tone for the weekend ahead.

Red Bull has introduced a new floor design in Baku to tackle their recent performance issues. The current world champions are only eight points ahead of McLaren in the constructors' championship.

Sergio Perez secured third place driving the second Red Bull car, while title contender Lando Norris, trailing Verstappen by almost half a second, finished ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

The first practice session saw three interruptions marked by red flags. The initial stoppage occurred due to debris on the track. The second incident happened when Leclerc crashed into the barriers at Turn 15 after entering the corner too quickly. Finally, Williams' newcomer Colapinto collided with the wall at Turn 4.

Fernando Alonso secured the seventh spot in his Aston Martin, while George Russell, Charles Leclerc, and Daniel Ricciardo completed the top-10 for Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull, respectively.

Oliver Bearman showed potential in his debut full F1 weekend, stepping in for the suspended Kevin Magnussen. The young British driver secured the 11th fastest time, edging out his Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg by a tenth of a second.

Although he had an accident, Colapinto managed to secure 16th place, just edging out his Williams teammate Alex Albon in terms

Esteban Ocon from Alpine was unable to record a lap time due to a power unit problem that cut short his involvement in the first practice session.

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