Baku is waiting for more action
Pérez back in front – Alfa-Sauber in a new dress
Welcome to the 8th World Championship round in sunny Baku. Ideal conditions on the 6003 meter long road course. With five winners in the five races so far! Fastest in the first training session: last year’s winner Pérez ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen.
Published: 2:17 p.m
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Updated: 2:36 p.m
Interesting that Pirelli has its three softest tire compounds on offer. Hopefully that goes well, remembering the high-speed tire explosions of Stroll and Verstappen.
Schumi in the emergency exit
After eight minutes the first incident. Schumi (23) slipped into the emergency exit with his Haas Ferrari. Liters of water ran out from under and next to the car. Annoying for the still pointless German, where the pressure continues to increase. But the World Champion son says: “I’m easy on the pressure!” Then we’ll see… Well, Schumi had to watch the whole training session.
His Danish teammate Kevin Magnussen immediately made it into the top ten and was in 13th place waiting for the second practice session.
Alonso longer than Schumi
Fernando Alonso (40) recorded the first best time. The Spaniard, who was the third driver following Hamilton and Schumi to break the 2000 point mark, has been there for exactly 7770 days since the first race in Australia in 2001. For Michael Schumacher it was just 7763 days from Spa 1991 to Brazil 2012!
First Lewis victory 15 years ago
And while we’re on the subject of numbers. 15 years ago today, the Briton won his first of 103 races! In Montreal, where Formula 1 will pitch its tents next week.
The stressed-out circus faces a 9,000 km long madness crossing eight time zones. When will such trips finally be corrected in the calendar? After Canada, it’s on to Europe for seven races: Silverstone, Spielberg, Le Castellet, Budapest, Spa, Zandvoort and Monza.
Alfa-Sauber still discreet!
After half an hour, the two top teams from Red Bull-Honda and Ferrari then took the top four places. Behind Alonso in the Alpine (10 championship points) and Tsunoda (11 points) in the Alpha Tauri-Honda.
At Alfa-Sauber, things certainly didn’t go to plan in the first 60 minutes: 15th Bottas, 16th Zhou. The new paintwork of the C42 was hardly to blame. Once once more, the people from Hinwil complied with a request from the title sponsor Alfa. Well, many like it! But just – you have to confirm the good results of 2022 first.
Hamilton: film project with Pitt
In the last quarter of an hour, seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton (37) moved up to fifth place ahead of the two Alpha Tauri Hondas. The Faenza side are the disappointment of the year so far – just 17 points.
Hamilton, who was then caught by Alonso, has now been made an honorary citizen of Brazil and also revealed: “My film project with Brad Pitt is slowly taking shape. I can’t say more yet. But as an actor I probably don’t perform!”
