Lando Norris confirmed control at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with the fastest time of a hectic last training in Baku.
Morning Rain made sure that the course started greener than on Friday and the lap times tumbled during the hour when the streets of the city grip grabbed up.
That was the case despite the supposed fragility of Pirelli’s soft C6 connection, which seemed too delicate on Friday to determine successive competitive laps.
Control of the upper spot has been turned between McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing while drivers completed several runs on their opening set of softs, but Norris needed only one round with his last set of fresh tires to determine the pace, a welcome change after his Scrappy Friday performance.
His round of 1m 41.223S was only fractionally faster than the best of Friday, determined by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, but it turned out not to be in the blustered circumstances of early Saturday afternoon.
Max Verstappen came closest after he ended the first runs the fastest, but the Dutchman was 0.222s from the pace by the end of the hour.
Oscar Piastri placed the second McLaren -third, but the title leader was 0.254 slower than his teammate.
Piastri Day was not as neat as Norris’s, where the Australian needed three attempts to get a time on the board with his last set of softs.
His first round was in turn 4 by a large Snap upset that forced him to give up the effort. He then gave up his second round after he was running deep and in the drain zone at the first turn.
His third attempt on the same set of tires would have been good enough for fourth place in the last order, but small improvements in his fourth flying round bumps him to the third.
The latter attempt, however, had the time on the table in the middle split, where he had not even set a second best – not surprising considering the age of his tires through the wworkest part of the track – and in the last sector, where he had to go back while he overshare the finish line because of yellow flags in turn 1.
Lewis Hamilton, the fastest man on Friday, was fourth and only 0.022’s slower than Norris. He led Mercedes teammates Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, although the German brand was further drifting of the pace, the drivers, 0.653S and 0.741s on the benchmark.
Alex Albon was the midfield leader at the seventh at 0.76’s from the pace, so that Haas driver Oliver Bearman and the Racing Bulls car from Liam Lawson led after the Kiwi had performed a perfect 360 spider after he in turn blown 16.
Charles Leclerc completed the top 10 at 0.986s of the pace, although the best round of the Monegasque with his last set of tires was spoiled by a poorly middle sector.
Leclerc, a quadruple Baku-Pole-Getter, was demonstrably lucky to get the end of the session in the first place after beating the outer wall on arrival 7. He was immediately released from a leaky band, but he then returned to Pit Lane to check if there was no damage to his legal breach.
Isack Hadjar was 11th for Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Franco Colapinto and Yuki Tsunoda, whose last flying round was hindered by traffic.
Esteban Ocon was 17th for Gabriel Bortoleto, Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll.
Result
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