Russell tops Azerbaijan FP1 as championship leader Antonelli's Mercedes breaks down

George Russell led first practice at the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on Thursday, clocking a 1m45.387s lap to head Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc — while team-mate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli lost significant track time after his Mercedes ground to a halt mid-session.

Antonelli, who arrived at the Baku city circuit leading the drivers’ standings, had briefly topped the timesheets after 15 minutes with a 1m46.265s lap on hard tyres. But before the halfway point the 20-year-old Italian coasted to a stop at Turn 7 with a smoking W17, triggering a virtual safety car. Marshals cleared the car without a red flag, and Antonelli eventually returned to post fifth place, though his running was severely curtailed.

With the race scheduled for Saturday to accommodate a national holiday, the one-hour Thursday session opened cautiously on a dusty street circuit that sees competitive action only once a year. Verstappen set the early pace on hard tyres, reporting brake-pull issues on his RB22, while Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar — returning after three weekends out with a wrist fracture — encountered similar problems.

Once the field switched to soft tyres for the second half, Verstappen briefly held top spot with a 1m34.787s lap, but Russell responded emphatically, taking four tenths out of the four-time world champion’s time to claim the benchmark. Leclerc came within 0.0004s of Verstappen to snatch third from Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who slipped to fourth.

The closing minutes were disrupted by a second virtual safety car after Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad lost control at Turn 7 and Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg suffered a separate issue at Turn 4, preventing any late improvements to the leaderboard.