The 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Thread

[cmlean]

This is the place to discuss everything related to the 17th round of the 2024 season in Baku, Azerbaijan between the 13th and 15th of September.

The event timetable for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Friday
1st Practice 13:30 local time - 09:30 GMT
Qualifying 17:00 local time - 13:00 GMT

Saturday
Sprint Shootout 12:30 local time - 08:30 GMT
Sprint Race 16:00 local time - 12:00 GMT

Sunday
Race 15:00 local time - 11:00 GMT

[cmlean]

FP1 Results

Code: Select all

Pos	Time		Driver		  Team
1	1:45.546	Max Verstappen	  Red Bull Racing
2	1:45.859	Lewis Hamilton	  Mercedes
3	1:45.922	Sergio Perez	  Red Bull Racing
4	1:46.027	Lando Norris	  McLaren
5	1:46.173	Carlos Sainz	  Ferrari
6	1:46.282	Oscar Piastri	  McLaren
7	1:46.452	Fernando Alonso	  Aston Martin
8	1:46.516	George Russell	  Mercedes
9	1:46.608	Charles Leclerc	  Ferrari
10	1:46.687	Daniel Ricciardo  RB
11	1:46.973	Oliver Bearman	  Haas
12	1:47.135	Nico Hulkenberg	  Haas
13	1:47.184	Lance Stroll	  Aston Martin
14	1:47.640	Valtteri Bottas	  Sauber
15	1:47.708	Yuki Tsunoda	  RB
16	1:47.901	Franco Colapinto  Williams
17	1:47.955	Alexander Albon	  Williams
18	1:48.712	Pierre Gasly	  Alpine
19	1:49.052	Zhou Guanyu	  Sauber
20	No Time		Esteban Ocon	  Alpine

[cmlean]

It was a fairly disrupted first session for the weekend.
3 red flags were thrown to prevent teams getting in some longer runs.
1st was for debris on the track. General consensus is it came from Franco Colapinto's Williams.
2nd was for Charles Leclerc sticking his Ferrari into the barriers in turn 15. Damage was limited to the wing and right front corner.
3rd was again for Franco Colapinto when he entered turn 4 to quickly, clipped the tyre barrier with the left rear which turned the left front hard into the fence.
On top of all this, Esteban Ocon had a power unit problem and failed to register a lap time.
This all occurred in basically the first half hour.
Other than those incidents, the rest of the session continued without serious problems.
There were drivers overshooting the corners but all took the escape road, found reverse or spun the car around, the rejoined the circuit.

[cmlean]

FP2 Results

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Pos	Time		Driver		  Team
1	1:43.484	Charles Leclerc	  Ferrari
2	1:43.490	Sergio Perez	  Red Bull Racing
3	1:43.550	Lewis Hamilton	  Mercedes
4	1:43.950	Carlos Sainz	  Ferrari
5	1:43.983	Oscar Piastri	  McLaren
6	1:44.029	Max Verstappen	  Red Bull Racing
7	1:44.093	Lance Stroll	  Aston Martin
8	1:44.475	Nico Hulkenberg	  Haas
9	1:44.536	George Russell	  Mercedes
10	1:44.547	Oliver Bearman	  Haas
11	1:44.645	Yuki Tsunoda	  RB
12	1:44.683	Fernando Alonso	  Aston Martin
13	1:44.737	Alexander Albon	  Williams
14	1:44.749	Franco Colapinto  Williams
15	1:44.785	Valtteri Bottas	  Sauber
16	1:45.056	Daniel Ricciardo  RB
17	1:45.156	Lando Norris	  McLaren
18	1:45.391	Pierre Gasly	  Alpine
19	1:45.810	Esteban Ocon	  Alpine
20	1:45.947	Zhou Guanyu	  Sauber

[cmlean]

Charles Leclerc complained about the repairs to his Ferrari.
The car was wheeled back into the pits, the mechanics weaved their magic, and Charles set fast time for the session.
Again, drivers were exploring the limits of adhesion and ending up down the escape roads.
Lando Norris was on a fast lap when he was impeded causing him to abort.
It will be interesting to see just where the McLarens are at after FP3 and qualifying.

[cmlean]

FP3 Results

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Pos	Time		Driver		  Team
1	1:42.514	George Russell	  Mercedes
2	1:42.527	Charles Leclerc	  Ferrari
3	1:42.737	Lando Norris	  McLaren
4	1:42.749	Oscar Piastri	  McLaren
5	1:42.862	Max Verstappen	  Red Bull Racing
6	1:42.968	Carlos Sainz	  Ferrari
7	1:43.024	Sergio Perez	  Red Bull Racing
8	1:43.194	Alexander Albon	  Williams
9	1:43.238	Franco Colapinto  Williams
10	1:43.301	Lewis Hamilton	  Mercedes
11	1:43.474	Fernando Alonso	  Aston Martin
12	1:43.503	Yuki Tsunoda	  RB
13	1:43.571	Lance Stroll	  Aston Martin
14	1:43.870	Daniel Ricciardo  RB
15	1:43.876	Pierre Gasly	  Alpine
16	1:44.164	Nico Hulkenberg	  Haas
17	1:44.187	Valtteri Bottas	  Sauber
18	1:44.869	Zhou Guanyu	  Sauber
19	No Time		Esteban Ocon	  Alpine
20	No Time		Oliver Bearman	  Haas

[cmlean]

Esteban Ocon again had another mechanical problem.
Oliver Bearman misjudged his entry into turn 1 and hit the barriers.

[cmlean]

Qualifying

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Pos	Time		Driver		  Team
1	1:41.365	Charles Leclerc	  Ferrari
2	1:41.686	Oscar Piastri	  McLaren
3	1:41.805	Carlos Sainz	  Ferrari
4	1:41.813	Sergio Perez	  Red Bull Racing
5	1:41.874	George Russell	  Mercedes
6	1:42.023	Max Verstappen	  Red Bull Racing
7	1:42.289	Lewis Hamilton	  Mercedes
8	1:42.369	Fernando Alonso	  Aston Martin
9	1:42.530	Franco Colapinto  Williams
10	1:42.859	Alexander Albon	  Williams
_________________________________________________
11	1:42.968	Oliver Bearman	  Haas
12	1:43.035	Yuki Tsunoda	  RB
13	1:43.179	Pierre Gasly	  Alpine
14	1:43.191	Nico Hulkenberg	  Haas
15	1:43.404	Lance Stroll	  Aston Martin
_________________________________________________
16	1:43.547	Daniel Ricciardo  RB
17	1:43.609	Lando Norris	  McLaren
18	1:43.618	Valtteri Bottas	  Sauber
19	1:44.246	Zhou Guanyu	  Sauber
20	1:44.504	Esteban Ocon	  Alpine

[cmlean]

Biggest shock was the elimination of Lando Norris in Q1.
My opinion as to why the yellow flags were shown is that Esteban Ocon's Alpine left the track causing it to occur.
By crossing over the large painted area on the inside of the corner caused the sensors to detect the car off track causing the yellow flags to be activated.
Next biggest was the speed of the Williams duo. That said, the Williams have been fast here in previous years.

[cmlean]

Results

Code: Select all

Pos	Driver		  Team
1	Oscar Piastri	  McLaren
2	Charles Leclerc	  Ferrari
3	George Russell	  Mercedes
4	Lando Norris	  McLaren
5	Max Verstappen	  Red Bull Racing
6	Fernando Alonso	  Aston Martin
7	Alexander Albon	  Williams
8	Franco Colapinto  Williams
9	Lewis Hamilton	  Mercedes
10	Oliver Bearman	  Haas
11	Nico Hulkenberg	  Haas
12	Pierre Gasly	  Alpine
13	Daniel Ricciardo  RB
14	Zhou Guanyu	  Sauber
15	Esteban Ocon	  Alpine
16	Valtteri Bottas	  Sauber
DNF	Sergio Perez	  Red Bull Racing
DNF	Carlos Sainz	  Ferrari
DNF	Lance Stroll	  Aston Martin
DNF	Yuki Tsunoda	  RB

Next: Round of Singapore '24
Date: September 20-22, 2024

[cmlean]

This ended up being another fantastic race in the 2024 season.
Charles Leclerc scampered off into the distance after Piastri damaged his tyres driving in the dirty air.
Piastri pitted and returned to the track and Charles Leclerc pitted next lap. What had been a 5 second lead had quickly been eroded.
Meantime, Sergio Perez was putting in fast laps and looked like he would take second from Piastri. Lando Norris stepped up as he was on the long run on his hard compounds and inserted himself in front of Perez in the tighter section of the track hindering Perez's progress. Great work!
Piastri whittled away the remnants of Leclerc's lead and swooped through entering turn 1 stunning Leclec. The attempted cutback occurred and Piastri then managed a 0.8 second buffer between himself and Leclerc. Stoic defense entering turn 1 was required multiple times until Leclerc's tyres finally went away. Perez was also being a pest keeping Leclerc's eyes going both forward and backward fending off any challenges from that side.
More drama was to follow as Carlos Sainz crept hie way closer to the top 3. With 2 laps to go, Perez attempted to take Clarles Leclerc entering turn 1 only to be hung out to dry when the attempt was unsuccessful. Sainz pounced and took 3rd only he got a little greedy and tried to also take his team mate on the outside entering turn 2. Perez this time had the run and managed to get his right front wheel basically level with Carlos Sainz left rear. Sainz crept over marginally left, Perez didn't give and the inevitable contact occurred. Both drivers hit the inside wall and the race finished under the virtual safety car.