“Verstappen outpaces Leclerc in sole practice session for Azerbaijan GP”

Max Verstappen topped the time charts during the only practice session at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix by edging out Charles Leclerc. The event’s format change this year involves two qualifying sessions. The first one determines the order of the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix, and the second one determines the starting grid for Saturday’s sprint race. The practice session has been shortened from three hours to an hour this year. This reduction hopes to create more excitement since the teams will not have enough time to accumulate data. Such events will take place in six rounds this season. During the practice, one-hour running had to be suspended for 13 minutes when Pierre Gasly’s Alpine caught fire. In an intense and action-packed session, Yuki Tsunoda limped back to the pits after hitting the wall. Max Verstappen has won two out of the first three rounds of the season, leading with a 15-point gap from his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez. During the session, Verstappen was followed by Leclerc, Perez, and Sainz. However, Lewis Hamilton only managed to secure 11th place while George Russell finished 17th out of the 20 runners. The qualifying session for this weekend’s event will take place on Friday at 5 pm local time (2 pm UK).