Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Practice Recap

Round 17 of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with Friday practice at the Baku City Circuit as teams prepared for Sunday’s 51-lap Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

With Kevin Magnussen serving a one-race ban for amassing 12-penalty points, Britain’s Oliver Bearman – set to race full-time for MoneyGram Haas F1 Team in 2025, received the call-up to compete in Baku alongside Nico Hulkenberg. 

FP1 was first up for Bearman and Hulkenberg, the opening one-hour practice session blighted by no fewer than three red-flag stops. The 19-year-old rookie, a double-winner in F2 at the Baku City Circuit in 2023, led the way with a best lap of 1:46.973 on Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires to earn P11 on the timesheets. Hulkenberg claimed P12 directly behind his teammate, the German using his softs to bank a quickest lap of 1:47.135. Both drivers started and finished the session running the Yellow medium compound for baseline and then latterly high-fuel runs.

FP2 may have lacked the red-flag drama from the earlier session but it proved to be a solid outing with both Hulkenberg and Bearman locking their VF-24s into the top 10. Hulkenberg posted a flying lap of 1:44.475 on his quali sim on the soft rubber to hold P8. Bearman was just a tenth slower, also on the softs, having clocked a best effort of 1:44.547 to close out his first full Friday participating in a grand prix weekend in P10. As per FP1, both entries started off on the medium tires and wrapped the day’s track action returning to them for valuable distance running.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team ran a total of 91 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – Bearman (47), Hulkenberg (44).
 

Nico Hulkenberg:

“The day hasn’t been bad, not perfect either, but it is a practice day. It was a day spent getting to grips with this very interesting, intense circuit again. It was super dusty; this morning grip conditions were very poor so there was huge track evolution throughout the day, and staying on top of the circuit evolution was key today. I didn’t have the cleanest run on the low-fuel softs which is okay, we just need to learn from it, understand our package and understand the tires. It’s been a positive day and a good base that we can compete from this weekend.” 

Oliver Bearman:

“It was nice to do a full Friday, building step-by-step without having to rush anything. I was quite happy with how the day went and how the day finished-up, and I was confident in the car which is important on a track like this. Tomorrow, my goal is to be proud of my performance; that’s going to be done by improving and finishing at a level I know I’m capable of, and having a clean performance.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“Today has been a really good day. We started FP1 reasonably strong but we had a few tweaks to make, which we did. We accounted for big track evolution, which is normal for here, so the feedback on the engineering side was very good. In terms of both low- and high-fuel performance, we didn’t maximize everything, but some good lessons learned and a clear direction of what we need to achieve so it was a decent Friday. Ollie has done a fantastic job again in both sessions, his learning rate is fast so I’m very pleased.”

Today's Data:

Event: Free Practice 1 & 2 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Friday September 13
Location: Baku City Circuit, Baku
Layout: 6.003-kilometer (3.730-mile), 20-turn circuit 
FP1 & FP2 Weather: Partly Cloudy
Drivers: Nico Hulkenberg, Oliver Bearman

Free Practice 1 (FP1) Rundown:

Bearman: 11th overall (1:46.973), 23 laps 
Hulkenberg: 12th overall (1:47.135), 20 laps 
Fastest: Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing (1:45.546)

Free Practice 2 (FP2) Rundown:

Hulkenberg: 8th overall (1:44.475), 24 laps  
Bearman: 10th overall (1:44.547), 24 laps
Fastest: Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari (1:43.484)