FP3: Russell pipped Leclerc to lead interrupted final practice at Baku
Having endured power unit issues on Friday, Mercedes driver George Russell bounced back to head the final one-hour practice at Baku. F1Technical’s lead journalist Balazs Szabo reports on Free Practice 3.
Despite three red flags during Friday’s opening practice, drivers were in no rush to head out on to the challenging Baku street track, with most of them spending the opening stages of the final one-hour session in their garages.
With 15 minutes into the session, the practice was red-flagged after Esteban Ocon came to a halt between Turns 17 and 18. The Frenchman had to have a precautionary PU change yesterday after a MGU-H issue was detected, so he has already missed nearly all of the first session.
Just a few minutes after the session was restarted, the red flag was out again, this time for Oliver Bearman. Ferrari’s junior driver, who is replacing Kevin Magnussen this weekend, crashed at Turn 1. The Briton overcooked it into the first corner, and was not able to bail out early enough to use the run off area The result was a strange half-bail, where he tried to slide down into the run off area and instead caught the barriers with his front left.
More to follow…
