Antonelli suffers hydraulics issue as Russell tops first Baku practice
· Yahoo Sports
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli suffered a hydraulics issue as Mercedes team-mate George Russell went quickest in the opening practice session 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 given smoke was coming from his car. There was an array of other incidents in the session.
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Russell set 1 minutes 45.387 seconds, 0.400 quicker than 2025 race winner and four-times world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was third fastest.
First and second practice are taking 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.