Pierre Gasly fastest in the last practice round in Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
French driver Pierre Gasly set the fastest time in the third and final practice round of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the sixth round of the Formula 1 World Championship this season, while Red Bull's Dutch driver Max Verstappen hit a barrier.
Gasly crossed the street circuit in the capital, Baku, in a time of one minute and 42.251 seconds in a hot afternoon.
Gasly won a race with the Red Bull-owned team in Italy last year.
Veteran Mexican Sergio Perez, Verstappen's teammate in Red Bull, set the second fastest time of the round, 0.344 seconds behind the fastest.
Mercedes' British seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton was third after complaining about some defects in the car before making a strong start afterwards, while his Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas was 13th, 1.494 seconds ahead of Gasly.
Mercedes had difficulties in reaching his speed in the rounds of this race and his drivers in the two rounds yesterday were outside the top ten.
Championship leader Verstappen, 4 points ahead of Hamilton, was denied after the first 5 rounds of the race after hitting a barrier at Turn 15, and the tour was stopped as a result after the car suffered some damage, which necessitated its removal from the track.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who crashed at the same site on Friday, clocked the fourth-fastest time, just ahead of his Spanish team mate Carlos Sainz, while Britain's Lando Norris finished sixth in McLaren's.
Perez was the fastest in yesterday's two rounds and has a good record in Baku, after climbing to the podium twice with the former team, Force India, and today he was in the lead until the end of the round and Gasly's launch and his superiority.
Reuters
