Fresh from winning at Monaco last time out, Perez, who is looking to become the first doublꦺe winner at Baku, topped the timesheet in first practice, 0.127s clear of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc who split the Red Bulls. 

Pere💝z finished 0.334s clear of Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen, who narrowly avoided the barriers when he spun at Turn 15 towards the end of the session. 

Caꦆrlos Sainz was fourth-fastest for Ferrari, half a second off the pace, while Alpine's Fernando Alonso took best of the rest spot in fifth, over a second down on Perez's beಞnchmark. 

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was the fastest Mercedes driv🌃er in sixth but 1.1s off the pace, ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and teammate George Russell. 

Pierre🃏 Gasly was ninth-quickest to ensure both AlphaTauri cars featured inside the top 10, aheadཧ of Alpine driver Esteban Ocon. 

The under-pressure Daniel Ricciardo’s w𝔉oes continued as he set t🐷he slowest representative lap time in 18th, over three seconds off the pace. 

Ricciardo was ahead of only Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and Haas driver Mick Schumacher, whoಞse respective sessions 🎶ended prematurely due to technical issues. 

Bouncing a headache for the drivers 

Many of the cars were noticeably bouncing around much more than usual during the opening 60 minutes of running at Baku, leading to several cꦬomplaints from the drivers over team radio. 

The Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull drivers were visibﷺly struggling with the phenomenon known as porpoising, wit💎h the rear wing on Verstappen’s RB18 suffering extreme flexing along the main straight. 

Max Verstappen's re🍨ar wing is flapping A LOT on the main straight in Baku

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1)

“The wing on the main straight is insanꦗe,” the reigning world champion reported🍒 over team radio. 

Meanwhile, Gasly said the “rideಞ is pretty shocking”, adding that he had “never f𝄹elt that much bottoming” in an F1 car before.