George Russell fastest in final Baku practice as Oliver Bearman crashes
George Russell sets pace in final practice as the battle for pole position looks finely poised, writes Lewis Larkam in Baku.
George Russell put Mercedes on top of the timesheet in an intriguing final practice at the F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix as Oliver Bearman crashed his Haas.
Despite complaining of “terrible” ride and possible engine problems, Russell set the fastest time out of nowhere in the final moments of FP3 to edge Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by just 0.013 seconds.
Lando Norris was third-quickest, 0.223s adrift of Russell and just a fraction ahead of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen, who leads title rival Norris by 62 points heading into the weekend, was fifth, 0.348s behind Russell’s benchmark.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz ended up sixth ahead of the Red Bull of Sergio Perez and the Williams pair of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto, both of whom set eye-catching pace to sit eighth and ninth.
Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top 10, with the seven-time world champion almost eight tenths adrift of his Mercedes teammate.
The battle for pole position appears too close to call heading into Saturday’s qualifying, with Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren all showing signs of being in contention.
FP3 was punctuated by two red flags: the first caused when Alpine’s Esteban Ocon ground to a halt on track with an unspecified issue.
British teenager Bearman, on just his second F1 race weekend as a stand-in for banned Haas regular Kevin Magnussen, brought out a second red flag when he clattered the barriers at Turn 1.
