REPORT: Disrupted First Day in Baku

The 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend began with a disrupted first hour of running at the Baku City Circuit, as a 25-minute red flag reshuffled everyone’s run plans.

As a result, our duo were only able to complete 17 laps each in FP1, all on the C6 Soft tyre. Alex Albon finished P5 with a best time of 1:43.563, while Carlos Sainz was P8 with a 1:43.859.

FP2 was thankfully less disrupted, with our pair completing 24 laps apiece. Alex ran the Hard compound while Carlos used the Mediums as we gathered data to guide us into the weekend.

It was on the Mediums that CS55 set his best time of the day – a 1:42.255 – though he was unable to get a clear lap on the Softs during his Quali simulation, ending the session in P11. He had been up on his best time before encountering Lando Norris’s McLaren limping back to the pits after a heavy hit with the barriers.

Alex found more time on the Softs, putting in a 1:42.177 to finish P9 at the end of Friday’s running.

"Today was about tyre learnings," Alex reflected. "First thing was to get on top of our programme for this weekend and trying to find the middle ground in terms of what’s optimal for the car and what’s optimal over one lap.

"I think we’re in a good flow right now, I'm happy with the car and I'm happy with the balance. Although I would like it to stay dry for the rest of the weekend. If there’s rain or weather tomorrow it puts us in a bit more of an unknown side, at the same time, it might make us even quicker.

"But for the most part, I think we've been in a good rhythm from FP1 and continued it into FP2.

Carlos added: "Interesting day for us today. FP1 was quite messy and we were caught out constantly by yellow flags. FP2 however was a better session and I’m happy with our long runs.

"We seem to struggle again with the softer compound so we need to keep looking for something more for Quali. I think tomorrow the Soft and Medium tyres are going to be extremely close, so we might see different approaches and this will spice things up in Qualifying."