Mercedes topped both practice sessions on the opening day of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with George Russell leading the timing sheets in FP1 and FP2 despite his teammate Kimi Antonelli suffering an early setback.
Russell set the pace in the first session on the soft tyres, finishing four tenths clear of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in second place. Antonelli’s session was cut short after just nine laps due to a loss of hydraulic pressure, forcing the team to carry out a power unit change during the break between sessions.
The track temperature reached the high forties throughout the day, with both drivers completing their planned programmes on the Hard tyres during FP1 before moving to softer compounds for single-lap work in the afternoon.
FP2 was briefly interrupted by an incident involving Arvid Lindblad at Turn 9. Once the session resumed, both drivers returned to the circuit on the C3 compound for qualifying simulation runs before switching to the C4 Medium for long-run work.
Russell again finished fastest in FP2. Antonelli, who had waited in the garage at the start of the session following his power unit change, showed strong pace on the softer C5 compound and ended the day five tenths behind his teammate, completing an all-Mercedes front row on the combined day’s timesheets.
Mercedes described the opening day as a promising start, with both drivers able to gather meaningful data across multiple tyre compounds ahead of qualifying.