The opening day of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix delivered a stop-start, high-stakes rehearsal on the Baku City Circuit, with red and yellow flags puncturing rhythm, walls punishing the smallest lapses, and form guides blurring. McLaren endured an unusually disruptive Friday, Mercedes signalled fresh optimism with Kimi Antonelli declaring the team "in the fight", and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson closed to within a whisker of the benchmark as he eyes another Q3 appearance.
McLaren: A rare off-beat Friday amid red flags and brushes with the wall
For a team that has set near-exemplary standards all season, McLaren’s day proved "tougher than we wanted". Early in FP1, Oscar Piastri encountered a power unit concern that initially looked serious. A lengthy red-flag period for a bizarre kerb issue bought the team precious time to resolve it, limiting the impact on track time. Even so, the circuit’s unforgiving margins soon bit back.
Across both sessions there were minor barrier kisses, foreshadowing what arrived in FP2 when Lando Norris clipped the wall and broke the left-rear suspension on his MCL38 — ending his running early. Later, Piastri’s soft-tyre, low-fuel effort was undermined after he heavily brushed a barrier. The tally at the flag: Norris and Piastri down the order, with the team ending a Friday without at least one car in the top three for the first time this season.
Team principal Andrea Stella labelled the day "disruptive", pointing to "multiple red and yellow flags interrupting both sessions" and the challenge of finding rhythm on a tight track with little margin for error. Still, McLaren harvested "important data" and will "consolidate learnings" overnight, with eyes on a tighter, more representative final practice and a typically fierce fight for pole.
Mercedes: Antonelli builds confidence and predicts a tyre conundrum
Mercedes closed Friday with welcome signs of competitiveness. George Russell ended FP2 in P3 with Kimi Antonelli P4, a timely boost after a difficult Monza. For Antonelli, the focus on a street circuit was measured progression: building confidence step by step, and finding lap time without overreaching.
"I think it was a pretty positive day," said the 19-year-old, noting the rhythm lost to the FP1 interruption but the solid gains in FP2. He reckons there’s still "two, three tenths to find" to fully unlock the W15’s potential and acknowledges Ferrari’s strong baseline, while cautioning that McLaren likely didn’t show its true pace amid its disrupted programme.
A key storyline is Pirelli’s softer selection compared to last year. Antonelli expects the medium compound could be the faster tyre on Saturday, elevating strategy calls in qualifying into a pivotal variable: which tyre, when, and how to maximise the window without tripping over traffic or flags.
Racing Bulls: Lawson hunting the team’s qualifying "truth"
Having rebounded from a "soul-destroying" slip-up at Monza, Liam Lawson used Friday to reassert the Racing Bulls’ growing one-lap threat. He finished P9 and P7 across the two sessions and, in FP2, was just 0.087s off Max Verstappen’s mark. For a car that has become a regular Q3 and points contender, the goal is clear: convert promise into grid position.
Lawson praised the cleaned and grippy Baku surface and underlined the realistic aim: Q3 is the target every weekend, and recent consistency suggests there’s "no reason" not to be in the mix if the team executes. The field is tight, the margins tiny, and the emphasis will fall on precision — from out-lap prep to mitigating interruptions.
Outlook: tight margins, tyre choices, and the cost of mistakes
With walls looming, flags frequent, and setup windows narrow, Baku is already forcing trade-offs. McLaren will aim to reset and reveal its pace; Mercedes’ confidence is growing as it homes in on a fine-tuned window; and Lawson’s Racing Bulls project looks poised to validate its qualifying credentials. Add in potentially critical tyre decisions and a congested midfield, and Saturday is set to be decided by execution as much as outright speed.
