F1 Azerbaijan GP: Lando Norris leads McLaren 1-2 in FP1 after red flag delays

McLaren’s Lando Norris topped Friday’s curtailed first practice at Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Norris topped team-mate Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in a two-part session that saw a lengthy interruption for kerb issues.

On the streets of the Azeri capital, championship leader Piastri soon had to halt his run plan due to power unit issues on his McLaren MCL39.

On the other side of the garage, team-mate Norris led the early running with a 1m43.747s on Pirelli’s softest tyre compound, the C6, which was quicker than Mercedes’ George Russell, Ferrari man Leclerc and Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen.

The Italian manufacturer is bringing its softest range to Baku in a bid to spice up what is otherwise a straightforward one-stop race, having introduced the extra soft C6 at other races including Monaco and Imola.

The red flag came out after 13 minutes due to a piece of kerb that had come loose on the exit of the final corner, which caused a lengthy stoppage as marshals worked to resolve the issue.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images

The session was only restarted with 21 minutes left on the clock, which inevitably triggered a flurry of activity as teams tried to gather what little data they could. The stoppage worked out well for Piastri, whose power unit issue was resolved so the Australian could rejoin the action in time for the restart.

Verstappen was the first frontrunner to substantially lower his time, moving up to second just 0.043s shy of Norris.

But the Briton’s response on brand-new softs was emphatic, taking a full second off his previous best with a 1m.42.704s, while Piastri’s first proper flyer netted him third right behind Verstappen’s Red Bull.

Leclerc and Russell all improved to jump ahead of Verstappen and Piastri, with Alex Albon also making a top five appearance before the final salvo of runs on a rapidly improving track.

On new boots, Piastri got a lot closer to Norris, but his 1m43.014s was still three tenths away from the lead as Norris remained on top. Leclerc was third, half a second off, staying marginally ahead of Russell and Albon.

Under pressure Yuki Tsunoda made a decent start to his weekend in the second Red Bull in sixth narrowly in front of team-mate Verstappen, but that was mainly due to the Dutchman aborting his final run on new tyres after going deep in Turn 14 and having to bail out into the escape road.