Piastri and Norris both hit the wall in Baku practice
Ian Chadband |
Oscar Piastri has lamented a “tricky” day in Baku which featured him scraping a wall in practice and then having to visit the stewards at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
But Piastri, winner in Baku last year, was not alone in his troubles on Friday with his McLaren teammate and main title challenger Lando Norris also enduring a more “costly” and damaging brush with the barriers on the difficult street circuit.
For once, the McLaren duo, who can wrap up the constrictors’ title for their team on Sunday, were well off the pace in practice, as Lewis Hamilton led Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari one-two in the second session.
Piastri, who had needed the McLaren mechanics to check a problem with his car’s power unit during the morning session in which he finished second fastest, ended up 12th on the timesheets in the afternoon, two places ahead of Norris, who had been quickest of all in first practice.
Piastri then also learned he was facing an investigation by the stewards for allegedly failing to slow for yellow flags.
The biggest drama in the afternoon came when, first, Norris clipped the wall heavily, his rear-left tyre snapping into the barrier on the exit of turn four, leaving him to have to limp back to the pits in his damaged car.
Norris called the incident “costly” and “annoying” as he didn’t get the chance to practice for the rest of the session. “It was feeling good until then,” he shrugged. “I’d rather have this and push and find the limits than not push at all.”
Only six minutes after his crash, Piastri also brushed his McLaren against the wall on the exit of the final turn, although it appeared his car had escaped the sort of damage that Norris’s had suffered.
“A bit tricky, just a bit up and down,” shrugged Piastri. “I think the pace is there, it’s just not the easiest to get the most out of it at the moment.
“We tried a few things in FP2 (second practice), I’m sure we’ll look back and see what we can change for tomorrow. But I think it’s going to be a bit different with tyre choices and stuff like that. I think there’s still a lot of positives from today, just a few tricky moments.
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the day (1min 41.293sec) which was 0.074sec ahead of his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, with George Russell third for Mercedes. Piastri’s best was 1:42.295, more than a second down on Hamilton and just 0.096sec behind Norris.
But Piastri was encouraged by some of the longer, race-simulation runs later in the session which suggested McLaren are likely to still be the pacesetters over the weekend.
AAP
