Russell tops Baku FP1 as championship leader Antonelli halted by Mercedes failure

George Russell set the pace in first practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Wednesday, posting a 1m45.387s lap around the Baku city circuit to head Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. The session was overshadowed by an early retirement for Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli, the championship leader, whose W17 ground to a halt at Turn 7 with smoke billowing from the car.

With the race exceptionally scheduled for Saturday to accommodate a national holiday, the opening hour got off to a cautious start on a dusty street circuit that only hosts Formula 1 once a year. Verstappen was first to set a meaningful benchmark on hard tyres, reporting brake-pull issues on his RB22, while Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar — returning to the cockpit after three weekends out with a wrist fracture — lost further time to an apparent power unit problem.

Antonelli briefly led the timesheets after 15 minutes with a 1m46.265s lap, but the 20-year-old Italian was sidelined before the halfway point when his Mercedes stopped and triggered a virtual safety car. The car was cleared without a red flag, allowing the field to switch to soft tyres for the session’s second half.

Verstappen’s first soft-tyre run ended in the Turn 1 escape road after locking his fronts, but a second attempt put him provisionally on top with a 1m34.787s lap. Russell then went four tenths quicker to claim the session with his 1m45.387s benchmark, having himself narrowly avoided the wall at Turn 3 moments earlier.

Leclerc came within 0.0004 seconds of Verstappen to take fourth, splitting the Ferrari pair as Lewis Hamilton slipped to fifth. Antonelli, who returned to the track after his stoppage, classified fifth overall.

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 his own issue at Turn 4, preventing any late improvements to the leaderboard.