Rand Norris reaffirmed control at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in the fastest time of his enthusiastic final practice in Baku.
Morning Rain ensured the truck was more environmentally friendly than Friday, and lap times fell throughout the hour as city streets were grabbed. It seemed too delicate to set up a back-to-back competitive wrap on Friday, despite being presumed to be a vulnerability in Pirelli’s soft C6 compound.
The top spot controls were rotated between McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull races as the driver completed multiple runs with the soft opening set, but Norris only needed one lap on the final fresh tire set to set the pace. His 1M 41.223S knee was only slightly faster than the Friday best set by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, but could not be ignored in the early Saturday afternoon fanatic situation.
Max Verstappen came closest after finishing his first run the fastest, but Dutchman was off the pace from 0.222s by the end of time.
Oscar Piastri placed second McLaren in third place, but the title leader was 0.254 seconds slower than his teammates.
The piastry sessions were not as tidy as Norris. The Australians needed three attempts just to spend time on the board with the final soft set. His first lap was ruined by a big snap of oversteer in turn 4, forcing him to abandon his efforts. He then ran deep on the first turn into the outflow zone before giving up on the second lap.
His third attempt on the same set of tires would have been enough for the fourth in the final order, but a slight improvement on his fourth flying lap made him third. But that final attempt left time in the central split table. He failed to set the second best, given the age of the tires passing through the most tortuous parts of the track.
Lewis Hamilton, the fastest man on Friday, is fourth ahead of Norris, with 0.022 at 0.022. He led Mercedes teammates Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, but the German Mark drifted over pace, driver, 0.653s and 0.741s on the benchmark.
Alex Albon was the midfield leader in 7th place in the 0.76s from the pace, leading the Racing Bulls cars of Haas drivers Oliver Bareman and Liam Lawson, running the perfect 360 spin after the Kiwi was blown off the course at Turn 16.
Charles Leclerc completed the top 10 in 0.986 seconds from the pace, but Monegascu’s best lap in the final tire set was ruined by a bad midterm division.
Leclair, a four-time Bakupole getter, was undoubtedly fortunate to reach the end of the session first after knocking on the outside wall on a seven-turn entry.
Isack Hadjar was ranked 11th over Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Franco Colapinto and Yuki Tsunoda.
Esteban Ocon was 17th in the list with Gabriel Boltreto, Pierre Guthrie and Lance Stroll.
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