Perez fastest by seven-hundredths from Leclerc in final Azerbaijan practice

5 comments on “Perez fastest by seven-hundredths from Leclerc in final Azerbaijan practice”

1. 

   Moi
   11th June 2022, 13:51

   Are the good times gone for Alfa and Haas already? Would be a shame, I’d like to see them in Q3
   1. 

      Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
      11th June 2022, 14:21

      I guess this is ciurcuit specific. Monaco and Baku present unique challenges and aren’t really representative for the rest of the season. At Baku you can cover parts of your car’s deficits, if you have an efficient aero package for low downforce and good braking stability plus traction.
      It might look completely different by the time F1 returns to circuits like Silverstone and Paul Ricard.
      Both the Haas and the Alfa seem to be strong through long radius medium speed corners and on circuits where the track surface offers a lot of grip. I expect them to return to their usual midfield positions after Canada.
2. 

   Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
   11th June 2022, 14:12

   Good lap by Pérez and a shame Verstappen’s lap was ruined by traffic.
   I guess Leclerc will have a little bit more time in the pocket come qualifying and get the job done. I wonder if we might see some slipstreaming between teammates, as is often the case in Baku, because it’s free laptime in the final sector.
   The battle between RB & Ferrari is even more thrilling here at Baku, because both cars are nip and tuck through every sector. The RB is surprisingly competitive through the middle sector and Ferrari barely loses any time in the final sector (0.05), despite being 5-6 kph down at the speed trap over the finish line.
   RB’s ERS seems to be performing very well at Baku, because Checo and Max are about 10 kph up on the Ferraris at the start of the lap and still 5 kph faster at the end. Perhaps they are able to deploy more energy at the start of the lap and still don’t suffer at the end of it.
   Nice job by McLaren to jump to the front of the midfield, even if they’re still very far away from the leaders. The midfield battle is going to be equally fascinating. McLaren, Mercedes, Alpha Tauri, Alpine, anyone of those teams could come out on top in qualifying. I believe Mercedes still have some time or power in their pockets. They were the only team not improving on their final sector time compared to yesterday, while others improved by up to 0.5 over their S3 times from FP2.
   1. 

      petebaldwin (@)
      11th June 2022, 14:31

      In F2, the slipstream gained them a lot of time in the final sector but following a car for the rest of the lap cost them even more time. It also means whoever is offering the tow will have to sacrifice their first lap in Q3 and with the high chance of red flags at this track, I’d personally say it’s not worth it.
      1. 

         Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
         11th June 2022, 14:53

         It depends on how closely you follow the car in front. Obviously no driver is going to follow another car from a distance of one or two seconds, but might do so from a distance of four or five seconds. Along the main straight you still get a distant tow, but don’t really suffer from dirty air, esepcially not with these new cars.
         Usually the drivers switch from run to run, so driver A gets the tow on the first run while driver B does on the second run. It’s been done at every qualy session at Baku since 2017, so I don’t see why they would stop doing this now.

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