Fascinating Friday in Baku

With Pirelli opting to select the softest compounds in their range (C6/C5/C4), the team opted to run only the Soft tyre on both George and Kimi’s car today.

That enables the team to carry four sets of the Soft compound, three Mediums, and two Hards into the rest of the weekend.

Running in FP1 was limited due to a kerb issue, costing over 25 minutes of time on track. George ended the session P4 with Kimi P11.

FP2 was a smoother hour with a mix of lower fuel work and long running completed. George ended the day third on the timing screens with Kimi fourth.

George Russell

That was an encouraging Friday for us here in Azerbaijan. We opted to complete our programme on the Soft compound only today and that made judging our overall limitations a little more tricky than usual. It is a long lap in Baku and the rear tyres are often suffering, particularly in the final sector. With the softest compounds in the range being used here, we knew the C6 would struggle to hold on throughout. With that said, we still ended the day in the top four in both sessions and know we’ve still got further improvements we can make. We also carry all our sets of the C5 Medium tyre into the rest of the weekend, and we hope that will be an advantage for us over some of our competitors.

I am now looking forward to resting up tonight, getting back to 100 per cent, and coming back strong for the rest of the weekend. We know it will once again be tight with our competitors, with Ferrari looking impressive and McLaren not yet showing their hand. If we can build on today though, then there’s no reason we can’t be in the fight for the podium on race day.

Kimi Antonelli

We had a pretty positive day out there. As it’s a street circuit, you want to build up your pace and confidence over several sessions and that is what I was focused on doing. We had a big interruption to FP1 which cost everyone some track running, but the car felt good in FP2 and that put us P4 on the timing screens. There is still work for us to do and improvements for us to find but today was a day we can build on going into the rest of the weekend.

Our realistic aim is to be in the fight for the podium on Sunday. McLaren couldn’t show their full pace today and Ferrari looked quick on both the Soft and Medium compounds, so we’re not getting carried away. We opted to only run the Soft tyre today and hopefully that helps over the rest of the weekend. It will be tricky adjusting to the other compounds when we first run them but we’re confident that this is the right approach.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

With any street circuit, if you get through the programme without any damage, it's normally a solid day. Both drivers did a good job, gradually finding time as the track improved and evolving the setup for the increasing grip. In terms of pace, we look to be in the mix but a good Friday here doesn't always carry into the rest of the weekend so we can't take anything for granted.

With a C6/C5/C4 tyre allocation here in Azerbaijan, all teams had some tough strategic decisions to take today. As we saw in both Imola and Montreal with this selection, there was a likelihood that the Medium tyre would be faster over the single lap than the Soft. With a long lap here in Baku where the rears often suffer in the final sector, this possibility looked to increase. We therefore opted to save all of our Mediums for Saturday and Sunday. That will keep our options open for qualifying and the Grand Prix. Hopefully that decision will play out in our favour over the rest of the weekend.

FP1 Result

FP2 Result