![]() Later he said he believed it was a perfect start let down by a tiny imperfection. “You have to remember this is a marathon not a sprint,” Wolff said to his team before the restart. ![]() It seemed inexplicable given Hamilton knew how important it was to consolidate the points. At the restart Hamilton flew from the grid and looked to have the lead, only for his brakes to lock and his car to career straight on into the run-off area. Verstappen’s late tyre failure caused the race to be red-flagged on lap 49, leaving a two-lap sprint to the flag, with Hamilton lining up in second beside Pérez. For him as a driver it’s so close, then it’s all gone.” The decisive moment came as drama enveloped what for much of the afternoon had been a pedestrian affair. “The emotion and frustration is so overwhelming at the moment,” said Wolff. Mercedes knew Baku and Monaco would be perhaps their least competitive races of the season and to have been close to gaining at least 18 points over Verstappen only to see it disappear was clearly difficult to deal with. Sainz ended up at the foot of the times thanks to a combination of that mistake and Renault spending time trialling a new front wing, rear wing and bargeboard package in FP1.The import of Hamilton’s vicissitude was writ large on the face of Mercedes’ team principal, Toto Wolff, who looked drained and distraught afterwards. The Russian driver, Bottas, Hartley (again), Carlos Sainz and Romain Grosjean all ran wide or had trips down escape roads at some point. Sergey Sirotkin gave Williams a boost in eighth, ahead of Pierre Gasly's Toro Rosso, although Sirotkin was one of several drivers to suffer on the low-grip circuit. McLaren's plan to experiment with its set-up in Friday practice to reduce its top-speed deficit in Baku appeared to work in FP1 as Fernando Alonso set the seventh fastest time, just ahead of another driver who has struggled for top speed this season. Neither Ferrari driver set a representative laptime, with championship leader Sebastian Vettel 10th and 2.2s off the pace and Kimi Raikkonen 15th. ![]() That knocked Hamilton to fourth and, as Esteban Ocon backed up Perez in fifth place, meant Verstappen was shuffled back to sixth. Sergio Perez took advantage of Hamilton's mistake to go third fastest for Force India, within a second of Bottas's best. That remained the benchmark to the end of the session although Ricciardo, still on supersofts, improved to a time just 0.035s slower as Hamilton remained almost a second adrift of his teammate. Ricciardo, on supersofts, got back ahead of the four-time world champion with a 1m45.150s, but Bottas cleared both on his first ultrasoft run with a 1m44.242s. Significant improvements followed, with Hamilton jumping to first on ultrasofts despite a poor final sector. ![]() That swung the rear round to left and caused the car to slide sideways into the barrier on the outside.Ī virtual safety car was deployed for almost 10 minutes as the stricken Red Bull was removed to safety. He lost control of his Red Bull under braking for Turn 5 and appeared to overcorrect the rear of the car stepping out heading towards the 90-degree left-hander. Several drivers complained about low grip and Brendon Hartley had a trip down the escape road at the tight Turn 8 into the castle section, but the first real victim was Verstappen. The first half of the session was a two-by-two affair as first the Mercedes duo jostled over P1 and then the Red Bulls came to the fore, with Verstappen and then Ricciardo going quickest. However, Verstappen's sideways slide into the Turn 5 barriers meant Red Bull's encouraging start to the street circuit event had a sour note as well. ![]()
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