2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Championship standings

Vettel leads Hamilton by twelve points. Mercedes leads Ferrari by eight points in the Constructors’ Championship.

Previous race

At Montreal, Hamilton won from pole, led every lap and set fastest lap — a grand slam. Bottas finished second for Mercedes’s first 1–2 of the season. Verstappen retired from second with an electrical failure on lap 11. Vettel damaged his front wing at the start and dropped to last, recovering to fourth through a two-stop strategy. Lance Stroll finished ninth for his first Formula One points.

Between-race developments

Carlos Sainz Jr. carries a three-place grid penalty for causing the collision with Felipe Massa at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Milestones

This is the maiden running of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The previous race at the Baku City Circuit ran in 2016 under the European Grand Prix title; the date was changed for 2017 to avoid a clash with the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Practice

Verstappen went fastest in FP1 at 1:44.410, ahead of Ricciardo and Vettel. Verstappen was also fastest in FP2 despite crashing heavily into the barriers at Turn 1 in the closing stages. Bottas went quickest in FP3 — setting the best time of the weekend at 1:42.742 — with Räikkönen second and Hamilton third. Jolyon Palmer failed to set a lap time in qualifying after a fire during FP3.