The first and only act of free practice in Baku starts, on the occasion of the new format of the Sprint Race inaugurated in this Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Ferrari did not start badly at all, as Carlos Sainz has the fourth fastest time behind Sergio Perez's Red Bull. For Leclerc to record a couple of exits of the track without consequences in Turn 7 and Turn 2. The red flag caused by the beginning of fire on Pierre Gasly's Alpine car had a considerable influence, significantly reducing the time available to the teams to make the most of the only hour available to test the qualifying and race set-ups. The interruption lasted about ten minutes before the green light that brought the cars back to the track.

Free practice that ended with the first time of Max Verstappen, at the wheel of Red Bull, in 1'42 "315. The number 1 is placed ahead of Charles Leclerc, behind only 37 thousandths, and Sergio Perez, third and a tenth away from his teammate. In fourth place the Ferrari of Carlo Sainz who closes with 1.42.899 on the lap, while Norris and De Vries follow in fifth and sixth position, respectively eight tenths and a second from the first time of Verstappen. Decent FP1 for the Aston Martins of Alonso and Stroll, respectively seventh and eighth. To close the top ten Albon in Williams and Zhou Guanyu, who puts his Alfa Romeo in tenth position.

In general, a session characterized by many long tracks and some contact with the walls, caused by the rather intense activity by all the teams due to the different work programs to be implemented before the qualifying session that will start at 15:00 and that will decide already this Friday the starting grid of the race on Sunday. Good progress has been seen at Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc who - despite two long tracks - wearing white tyre has collected interesting times, remaining close to Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. With the red tyre, however, the Monegasque even collected the second fastest time of the entire hour of practice, putting himself just behind Max Verstappen.