With Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes pulling themselves into the top 10 thanks to slipstreams, Max Verstappen’s dress rehearsal ended in the wall: Formula 1 title candidates experienced a tough final training session at the Grand Prix on the streets of Baku.
In particular, world champion Hamilton suffered a setback in qualifying on Saturday afternoon.Live on Sky at 2pm) fear.
World Cup runners-up Alphatauri from England and Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez (Mexico) finished in the third free session after a very late fast lap behind surprise man Pierre Gasly (France). However, this was made possible by a slipstream on the long full-throttle route towards the destination.
As a favorite for Red Bull Pole
Mercedes themselves held the advantage to six tenths of a second, with Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas (Finland) landing only 13th – and radioed the pits immediately afterwards: “Without such slipstreams, the car That’s all I have.”
Despite Gasly’s astonishing best time of 1:42,251 minutes, Red Bull can be considered the favorite for pole position. Verstappen, however, goes into the hunt several times without optimal preparation: the World Cup front runner finds himself halfway through training in the narrow old town thus missing out on valuable testing time of more than 30 minutes. In the end, the Dutchman finished 15th.
Vettel grows up
For Sebastian Vettel it was at least a little bit on the upswing compared to the previous day. Heppenheimer, who had last finished fifth in Monaco with his first point for Aston Martin, finished eleventh. Teammate Lance Stroll (Canada) finished right behind. Mick Schumacher was at the bottom of the field for most of the losing Haas, but pushed his teammate Nikita Masepin (Russia) to the last spot.
Please use Chrome browser to use our video player with optimum performance!
In the last race in Monaco, Verstappen took the championship lead with his victory, four points separating him from Hamilton. Their racing team is also one point ahead of Mercedes in the team standings. The last time Red Bull had such a double lead was in 2013, when Vettel won his fourth and final title with the racing team to date.
Results of the third free exercise:
First Pierre Gasly (France) Alfatouri-Honda 1:42.251 min, Second Sergio Perez (Mexico) Red Bull-Honda 1:42.595, Third Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain) Mercedes 1:42.697, Fourth Charles Leclerc (Monaco) Ferrari 1:42,778 , 5. Carlos Sainz Jr. (Spain) Ferrari 1: 43.006, 6th Lando Norris (Great Britain) McLaren-Mercedes 1: 43.011, 7th Fernando Alonso (Spain) Alpine-Renault 1: 43.080, 8th Yuki Tsunoda (Japan) Alfatori-Honda 1: 43. Esteban Ocon (France) Alpine-Renault 1:43.294, 10. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) McLaren-Mercedes 1:43.557, 11. Sebastian Vettel (Hapenheim) Aston Martin-Mercedes 1:43,585, 12. Lance Stroll (Canada) Aston Martin-Mercedes 1: 43.682, 13. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Mercedes 1: 43.745, 14. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1: 43.826, 15. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull-Honda 1:43.984, 16th Nicolas Latifi (Canada) Williams-Mercedes 1:44.054, 17th Antonio Giovinazzi (Italy) Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1:44.113, 18th George Russell (Great Britain) Williams-Mercedes 1:44.434, 19. Mick Schumacher (Gland / Switzerland) Haas-Ferrari 1: 45.282, 20. Nikita Masepin (Russia) Haas-Ferrari 1: 45.711
Sports Information Service (SID)
Web guru. Amateur thinker. Unapologetic problem solver. Zombie expert. Hipster-friendly travel geek. Social mediaholic.
