Baku kerbs cause tyre damage in FP1

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Grand Prix of Europe organisers are having to make adjustments to the kerbs in Baku after many tyres were damaged during FP1.

The first Friday practice session passed largely without incident in terms of tyres, with Daniel Ricciardo crashing at Turn 15 to bring out the red flag in the final half hour. However, analysis of the tyres during the session itself showed damage to 90% of the left rears on each car.

As a result, GP2 qualifying was suspended and eventually postponed by FIA race director Charlie Whiting who carried out a track inspection and has requested work be carried out on a number of kerbs around the circuit.

Pirelli as a normal practice inspects all tyres and reports any issues it finds to the FIA. The tyre manufacturer will have been concerned the cuts could lead to more serious failures, with cars reaching over 350kph on the long run from the exit of Turn 16 to the first corner of the 6.003km lap.

The second F1 practice session is due to take place from 1700-1830 local time (1400-1530 BST), with the GP2 qualifying session now set to run after the end of FP2. At present it is not clear if the rest of the day's schedule will go ahead as planned.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.