Hello and welcome to our coverage for the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. It’s the fifth edition of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but actually the sixth time a grand prix has been held at this track as in 2016 it was billed as the European Grand Prix. Is Azerbaijan in Europe? Partly. Is Baku? Not really? But then again we had the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola and the Luxembourg Grand Prix at the Nurburgring and that is at least 80km away from Luxembourg. So there you go.
So far the running has been fairly what we have come to expect from this season, with Ferrari and Red Bull leading the way with little really to separate their four drivers. Sergio Perez – a winner in Monaco last time out – was fastest in final practice, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.070s. Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull, 0.279s away from his team-mate and Carlos Sainz was fourth, just over four-tenths away from Perez.
The Mexican has traditionally gone well at this circuit and has found his feet and his form at Red Bull this season, after a tricky and inconsistent year in 2021. Verstappen is finding the car less to his liking and the disparity this season is just 15 points in the standings (albeit not fully reflective given it’s two DNFs to one) and it’s 5-2 in qualifying. In percentage terms, Perez is just adrift of Verstappen by 0.165 per cent in qualifying. That is much improved from last year.
Mercedes struggles have continued in Baku. The bouncing is still there and there is also a significant straight-line deficit. George Russell made it into the top 10, albeit 1.4s off the pace, with Lewis Hamilton down in 12th, 1.6s off Perez’s quickest time. That podium challenge in Spain does not look like it is kick-starting their season just yet.
Lando Norris impressed again, in fifth and Daniel Ricciardo was right behind him for once, within a tenth of a second.
Qualifying’s start time has been delayed by 15 minutes due to FP3 being delayed by the same start time due to a barrier repair that was required after a crash in Formula 2 earlier in the day. So it’s a very late start of 3.15pm BST. Will it be another Leclerc pole?
