Charles Leclerc endured a disastrous start to his Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend, bringing out the red flag just 27 minutes into FP1 with a heavy crash at the tricky Turn 15 braking zone.
The Baku City Circuit is notorious for incidents, and FP1 was no exception. Some debris from Franco Colapinto’s Williams machine brought out the first red flag of the weekend before Leclerc made it two just 13 minutes later.
Ferrari’s star driver was carrying too much speed into the difficult left-hander at Turn 15, failing to get the car slowed down in time as he crashed head-on into the barriers.
The red flag was duly waved, but there was no way for Leclerc to continue. He hopped out of the cockpit while the recovery vehicles collected his Ferrari machine.
Offering his insight on the Sky Sports F1 broadcast, 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve said: “He missed the kerb on the inside. He just arrived with too much speed and when some drivers go to quick, they go to the run-off. He didn’t make that call.”
Adding his thoughts, Karun Chandhok added: “It’s like he just missed the apex. He took way too much speed. It was a panic lock-up. If you’re going to crash at some point in the weekend, let it be FP1 when you have time to dial yourself in.”
Leclerc wasn’t the final driver to bring out the red flag in FP1. With 17 minutes left on the clock, Colapinto got loose on the entry to Turn Four, sending his Williams car into a spin.
The Argentinian racer’s spin wasn’t a high-speed one, but when his car snapped back around it collided with the barrier at an awkward angle, causing significant damage to his FW46.
This was a less-than-ideal impact for Colapinto, who was drafted into the second Williams seat to replace Logan Sargeant after the American’s persistent crashes pushed team principal James Vowles into action in Monza.
