Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Max Verstappen fastest in practice before qualifying

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is unrecorded connected 5 Live and the BBC Sport website

Red Bull's Max Verstappen pipped Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to fastest signifier clip astatine the Azerbaijan Grand Prix earlier qualifying connected Friday.

Lando Norris was 5th for McLaren arsenic the squad present a large car upgrade.

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso did not bash runs connected the fastest 'soft' tyre.

Alonso was eighth fastest, Hamilton 11th and Russell 17th.

It was a torrid league for Alpine. Pierre Gasly suffered a large occurrence aboriginal successful the league portion team-mate Esteban Ocon stopped with what the squad would accidental lone was an "issue astatine the backmost of the car".

This is the archetypal play of a caller format for the 'sprint' races.

Qualifying astatine 14:00 UK clip volition acceptable the grid for the main expansive prix connected Sunday, portion a 2nd qualifying league volition tally connected Saturday to acceptable the grid for the 'sprint' contention aboriginal that day.

It was an incident-packed session.

Sainz deed the wrong partition aboriginal on, without harm. Alpha Tauri's Yuki Tsunoda spun and punctured a tyre astatine Turn Two. Leclerc went disconnected doubly without harm, locking up astatine Turn Seven and past Turn Two. And Williams operator Logan Sargeant had an incidental astatine Turn One wherever the beforehand helping seemed to neglect and driblet down, causing him to fastener a beforehand tyre.

Behind Norris, Alpha Tauri's Nyck de Vries was sixth fastest, up of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll, Alonso, Williams' Alex Albon and Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu.