Charles Leclerc hits out at Ferrari team after crash in Azerbaijan GP practice

Charles Leclerc voiced his irritation with his Ferrari team and car on a difficult opening day at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the Monegasque driver.

Leclerc, who raised hopes of an unlikely F1 title bid with victory at his team’s home race at Monza a fortnight ago, was the fastest man on track in first practice before dumping his car into the wall just over halfway through the session.

The 26-year-old picked up some dirt coming out of turn 14, before locking up and hitting the barrier at turn 15.

That was one of three red flags in FP1 at the Baku City Circuit, with Williams’ Franco Colapinto also finding the barriers.

The Ferrari mechanics looked to have restored the car adequately for the start of second practice a few hours later, but Leclerc did not agree.

Struggling with his steering, he said over the team radio: “Check the data but something is bent on the car. It’s impossible you can’t see that on the data.”

Leclerc abruptly entered the pits and only reappeared with 25 minutes to go in the session. However, the Ferrari driver did then put his car top of the timesheets with a time of 1:43;484, 0.006 seconds quicker than Sergio Perez behind him.

Earlier, Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz finished fifth in FP1, ahead of Lando Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri in sixth, with Leclerc ultimately ninth after the crash ended his running early.

Max Verstappen was fastest, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez.

British driver Oliver Bearman finished an encouraging 11th on his first full weekend in F1.

The 19-year-old from Essex, who was parachuted into Sainz’s Ferrari ahead of qualifying at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in March, is deputising for the banned Kevin Magnussen at Haas.