Formula 1: Checo Pérez was better than Leclerc in the last free practice before qualifying in Baku

Formula 1 changed last year when Max Verstappen dethroned Lewis Hamilton, who was on the way to his eighth title, a class-record. It was expected that 2022 would have Red Bull with the Dutchman as a candidate, and despite occupying (still the first place in the championship), but it is Sergio Checo Pérez who makes the difference in the last two races. He did it in Monaco, where he won the GP, and he also tries it in Azerbaijan, where in the last free practice he set the best time.

The Mexican, who has just announced his renewal with the Austrian squad until 2024, only got it towards the end of the session, when it appeared that Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) would take the scrolls before qualifying. However, the Monegasque was 70 thousandths from the 1m43s170 with soft tires obtained by Pérez. Behind them stood Verstappen, with a record 279 thousandths slower.

As happened on Friday, Carlos Sainz stayed away from the pace of his Ferrari teammate, Leclerc, and finished fourth behind the Red Bulls, 426 thousandths behind Leclerc. In the meantime, the McLarens were surprised, they didn’t come from a good day but were the best, with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo in fifth and sixth place.

The last training before qualifying (at 11:15 on Fox Sports and Star +) started fifteen minutes late due to an accident in Formula 2, which shares date and stage with the highest category. But once a deteriorating fenced area was repaired, Ferrari set the pace for much of the session with a Leclerc looking relentless.

With a time of 1m43s514 at the best of his seven laps, the Monegasque seemed determined to match what he had done the day before. But Checo Pérez has always been close to him and in the end he was able to take advantage of his Red Bull, lower the times and take the best before the busy track that made a good time impossible.

Not only did Leclerc suffer. When Verstappen made a record lap in the first sector, he bumped into Alonso’s Alpine, which was 11th, and had to stop the lap and settle for third.

Sainz, who repeated the second place obtained a year ago in Monaco two Sundays ago, is still unable to achieve what Leclerc does on his Ferrari and this is reflected in the World Championship led by Verstappen by 9 points, where he is fifth with 83 points. 27 for Checo, who occupies the third place in the World Championship and who was once again faster than his Dutch teammate, in a session without major incidents, in which Red Bull and Ferrari alternated at the top of the standings; and that ended with 27 degrees Celsius and 45 on the asphalt.

In the circuit that has the longest straight in the championship (2.2 kilometers) and in which the ideal configuration is sought that finds the compromise between the maximum speed on the aforementioned straight and at the same time sufficient aerodynamic load in view of the slowdown corners of the first two sectors of the same, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) set the twelfth time of free practice, even if at one point he was at the bottom of the standings along with his former teammate Valtteri Bottas.

As happened for the third free practice, to respect the two-hour break between the tests, the classification, which will order the starting grid for this Sunday’s race at 8 am, will take place from 11:15 am.