Practice 1 Report - Draining

By Dan Knutson

Free Practice 1 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix lasted barely a dozen minutes before the rest of the session was canceled. Charles Leclerc's Ferrari had pulled lose a manhole drain cover on the track. Then George Russell's Williams ripped it out.

"I just hit it, the biggest shock went through my body," Russell told Sky TV. "The whole engine just turned off, it's ruined the floor. It was just on the normal racing line and has ruined my session. Not what we need at this stage but just one of those things."

The drain covers are all supposed to be welded down. Obviously, all of them – some 300 – would now need to be closely checked. Officials canceled the rest of the session.

The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas; Ferrari – Sebastian Vettel and Leclerc; Red Bull TAG Heuer –Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly; Renault – Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg; Haas Ferrari – Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen; McLaren Renault – Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris; Racing Point Mercedes – Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll; Alfa Romeo Ferrari – Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi; Toro Rosso Honda – Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon; Williams Mercedes – Russell and Robert Kubica.

Grosjean was the first out on the dusty 3.731-mile (6.003 km) 20-turn Baku city track.

"Baku is a very nice track because it presents many challenges, with a bit of everything and overall it is fun to drive," said Kvyat who was celebrating his 25th birthday. "It's a long track, with a very long straight and a lot of corners, which all makes for exciting racing and should present a good opportunity for us. The fun comes partly from all those walls that are very close to the track, which give you a real adrenaline rush.

"It's a track with many overtaking opportunities and the long straight means you can fight other cars. It's an interesting track as it is very demanding and you have to run slightly less downforce than you would do normally at a street circuit. Braking is also challenging so you have to be on top of that, especially approaching Turn 1 at very high speed at the end of the very long straight. You need to be precise with the braking points there. I will give it my all!"

The ambient temperature at the start of the 90-minute session was 61 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Centigrade).

Ferrari and Red Bull both had a considerable number of upgrades for their cars. Honda also had a new power unit. Vettel and Leclerc were soon turning laps – doing back-to-back comparisons – and Leclerc put his car on top with a 1:48.343 followed by a 1:47.497.

Vettel was the only other driver to set a time before session the red flags came out.

"It's clear from the data that there's probably a lot of damage to the floor of the car," Claire Williams told Sky TV. "We'll have to wait and see if that chassis is repairable. It's not what you would expect from a Formula 1 circuit, the drain covers are supposed to be welded down. We'll be taking that up with race control."

Meanwhile, the crane on the truck bringing the Williams back to the pits hit a bridge.