Red Bull reveal dual challenge for Max Verstappen around 'lap of two halves'

Red Bull head of racing Gianpiero Lambiase claims the team faces considerable overnight analysis to determine its qualifying plan around "a lap of two halves" that comprises the Baku Street Circuit. Max Verstappen heads into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix fresh from his dominant victory last time out in Italy, aided by a new floor on the RB21 that worked in the special low downforce conditions required for Monza. Baku is an unusual circuit as one half of the track is suited to low downforce, with the other half requiring much higher downforce to combat the 90-degree corners and twisty castle section. It makes setting up the car a compromise between the two, or primarily opting for low downforce to tackle the longest 'straight' in F1, and the overtaking opportunities into Turn 1, primarily, and Turn 3. After Verstappen finished sixth on the timesheet at the end of FP2, six-tenths of a second behind the surprise pacesetter in Lewis Hamilton in his Ferrari, Lambiase recognises the "unique challenge" required to tackle Baku. "It is almost a lap of two halves, where we have a two-kilometre-long straight and a sequence of multiple low-speed corners," assessed Verstappen's race engineer. "It is challenging to pick our downforce level, to not only be optimum in lap time in qualifying but to ensure we are raceable across multiple factors on Sunday. That's one challenge. "The other is that this is a street track, so it is very bumpy, which causes a few gremlins under braking. There have been some tweaks mechanically across both cars, both in session and across sessions, to try and optimise our platform." Another area for Lambiase and Red Bull to digest is the choice of tyre compounds for qualifying. Pirelli has brought its softest range of tyres, a step softer than last year, to hopefully introduce more strategic options for the race. That saw a mix of the soft and medium compounds used throughout both practice sessions, and at various stages. Verstappen, for instance, was quickest on the soft tyres, but was sandwiched on the timesheet by medium runners Oliver Bearman in his Haas, and Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson.  "Looking ahead to quali and the race, there is an unusual tyre selection across the grid, across both sessions," said Lambiase. "Most people are opting to focus on the soft tyre. "We, therefore, have some analysing to do this evening to really look into the programme for qualifying, while making sure we are on top of our long run game on Sunday, which could be impacted by lower than usual track temperatures here."