Berlin [Germany], September 25: Mercedes team-mate George Russell challenged team-mate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli by finishing quickest in both practice sessions on Thursday for the Azerbaijan Formula One Grand Prix.
Italian Antonelli, who leads Russell by 81 points as he eyes a maiden title, stopped on the Baku street track in first practice due to a hydraulics issue - with smoke coming from his car.
There was an array of other incidents in the session.
Russell set 1 minutes 45.387 seconds to top the timesheets and then went quicker in the second outing with 1:43.347.
Antonelli's car was fixed for the second session and he placed second, 0.552 behind. Max Verstappen of Red Bull, the 2025 race winner, was second fastest in the first session and third quickest in the second.
Racing Bulls Arvid Lindblad, who also had problems in the morning, hit the wall and caused a red flag stoppage in FP2.
Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar was back in action after missing three races with injury. He was ninth fastest in the second session.
First and second practice took place on Thursday in Baku as opposed to the usual Friday because the whole grand prix weekend has been brought forward by a day.
The race will be on Saturday given Sunday is Azerbaijan's national Remembrance Day.
Final practice and qualifying are set for Saturday in round 15 of 23 - although the final two races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi in November and December are under threat from tensions in the Middle East.
Next weekend's rearranged Bahrain GP is taking place in Malaysia for the same reason.
Source: Qatar Tribune
