Good morning, bonjour! to all F1 racing enthusiasts new and present. Welcome to the Baku City Street Circuit. This weekend will be the 8th race of the 22 racing track and street circuit season for the 2022 Driver and Constructors championship.
This weekend will be divided into 3 days of racing,
Today we will see Practice 1 for 60 mins followed by Practice 2 for another 60 mins.
Tomorrow on Day 2 we will see Practice 3 followed by Qualifications, “Q1, Q2 & Q3 but we’ll have more on that tomorrow. Raceday is on Sunday June 12th 2022.
Overview
From the city streets of Baku, one of the fastest street tracks on the circuit this season. The Baku Street track can humble any driver, no matter how good they are. This is a fast track with long straights that can have a driver into the barriers in no time. Vicious and cunning turns, apex curbs and bends that lead into runoffs come Sunday.
The Monégasques Charles Leclerc, Ferrari are looking to take pole again.
Max Verstappen hopes to finish the race without any disastrous mishaps like last season. With 5 laps to go and a controlling lead he had a blowout tyre. Max has some unfinished business from last season.
Don’t count out Mercedes and the other mid-field teams.
This track is volatile, stay tuned.
Track Facts / Street Facts
- It’s titled Baku City Circuit.
- The Circuit length is 6.003 KM.
- The number of laps in the upcoming race on Sunday is 51.
- The first Grand Prix race took place here in the streets of Baku in 2016.
- The race distance for Sunday is 306.049 KM.
- The lap record is 1.43.009, held by Charles Leclerc
Practice 1 Brief
FP1 is a go. Practice 1 is underway, and both McLaren and Alfa Romeo are out on the track. Already signs of a lot of bouncing in the cars, known as “Porpoising”. Gasly, AlphaTauri, Saniz, Ferrari, and both Mercedes are all experiencing the same effects.
The young Schumacher is down the escape ramp with another water pressure issue, you can see it guzzling out the right side of the car, oh! Mick cannot get a break. The wings in the back of the racing cars look smaller than last year, which could be a key in this year’s race.
More on back wings in our feature tomorrow. Leveling the downforce close to perfection will be instrumental in winning the race on Sunday.
The flag comes out and FP1 is over. Sergio Perez of Red Bull Racing, winner of last year’s race, is on top on the timesheets with a time of 1m 45.476s. Charles Leclerc of Ferrari finished in 2nd and Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing finished in 3rd about three-tenths ahead of his teammate Perez.
High winds, fast street track, vicious turns, with apex curbs and somehow we have avoided major crashes for this session.
Stay tuned for FP2
Ennio Sorgini is a F1 Racing Analyst with GTA Weekly News.
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