Today’s day certainly didn’t smile upon Scuderia Ferrari in Baku. Between the incident in FP1 and the steering issues in FP2 for the Monegasque driver, as well as the investigation for impeding involving the Spaniard, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have assessed the situation.
At the end of the first day of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, the Scuderia Ferrari drivers attempted to take stock of the Friday’s events. Charles Leclerc secured the fastest time in the second practice session this afternoon, while Carlos Sainz finished fifth in FP1 and fourth in FP2. However, from the race pace analysis, no particularly reliable references emerged, partly due to the track appearing very slippery and in suboptimal conditions.

Charles Leclerc wrapped up today, shifting his focus entirely to tomorrow, where every moment will be crucial in preparation for qualifying: “The pace was there today, but between the incident in FP1 and a problem we had in FP2 with the steering, we didn’t complete too many laps. It will be important for us to have a smooth FP3 and get ready to extract the most out of qualifying tomorrow.“.
“We had the usual challenging Friday here in Baku, with very little grip to begin with and then finding a different and evolving track as the day went by. We were almost four to five seconds slower compared to last year and it was complicated to get a proper read on the car balance. However, we were able to progress from the first to the second session and I’m confident we can keep it up and have a good qualifying tomorrow.Carlos Sainz described today as “the usual difficult Friday,” but he chose to look at the improvement between FP1 and FP2 with optimism, setting his sights on tomorrow.
In FP2 at Baku, Carlos Sainz is under investigation for impeding Sergio Perez.
The Spanish driver of car number 55 has also been “unusually” summoned by the race stewards due to impeding Sergio Perez. As stated in the note issued by the FIA, “impeding during practice sessions is typically not investigated by the stewards unless it is deemed dangerous. This was investigated because car number 11’s driver, Perez, had to lift off the throttle and move to the right in a high-speed section of the track, which could have potentially been dangerous.“.

During the hearing, Carlos Sainz admitted that he saw Perez in his rearview mirror and was also notified by his team. However, due to distractions caused by various alerts on his car, he did not accurately assess the proximity to car number 11. The stewards’ decision regarding the incident involving the Ferrari driver in Baku was to issue a formal warning to the Spaniard, in accordance with the agreed guidelines.
Photo: Scuderia Ferrari HP