FIA explains Baku kerb concerns

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FIA race director Charlie Whiting has explained his concerns regarding the kerbs at the Baku City Circuit.

Following first practice for the Grand Prix of Europe it was discovered 90% of the left rear tyres had suffered damage from the kerbs, leading Whiting to carry out a track inspection. GP2 qualifying was postponed while work was carried out in order to allow FP2 to start on time.

Whiting explained the track inspection had shown where the areas of concern were and the race organisers had quickly come up with a solution on Friday.

"Some small bolts had come loose at the end of the kerbs on Turns Six and 12, so we've taken the bolts out and welded the kerbs to each other [ahead of FP2]," Whiting told Sky Sports.

"Everything's new, they've done the best they could and we just needed to do a bit of fixing."

Replays of cars exiting Turn 6 showed the final section of the exit kerb to be loose and lifting as cars ran over it. Race control then told teams to inform their drivers to stay off the kerb for the remainder of the session.

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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.