George Russell topped opening practice for the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix as Mercedes looked sharp on Thursday in Baku. The British driver clocked a 1m45.387s to edge out Max Verstappen of Red Bull and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. It was a clean morning session in near-perfect conditions, though plenty of drivers complained about brake issues in the early running.

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Things got trickier for championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who ground to a halt on track with a hydraulics problem mid-session. The German-born Italian finished fifth quickest after getting going again, watching his team-mate Russell lead the charge instead. A pair of Virtual Safety Cars interrupted the session, first for Antonelli's stoppage and later when Audi's Nico Hulkenberg also stopped on the circuit.

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McLaren had a proper mare in FP1 despite rolling out an upgraded package. Oscar Piastri missed chunks of running thanks to a power unit issue, while Lando Norris was forced to work around a temporary bargeboard fix throughout the hour. Over at Red Bull, returning driver Isack Hadjar also lost significant track time battling power unit troubles of his own.

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Lewis Hamilton, now driving for Ferrari, slotted into fourth place with a 1m45.824s, just behind Leclerc who interestingly didn't get a soft tyre run in for FP1. Oscar Piastri eventually managed sixth, with Liam Lawson seventh for Racing Bulls. The rest of the grid spread out behind, with Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll completing the order at the bottom of the timesheets. Teams have plenty of data to work through before Friday's second practice session gets underway.

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