{"id":148732,"date":"2025-09-20T05:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T05:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/148732\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T05:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T05:38:08","slug":"another-f1-track-record-set-to-fall-in-baku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/148732\/","title":{"rendered":"Another F1 track record set to fall in Baku"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/2025\/09\/19\/2025-azerbaijan-grand-prix-practice-in-pictures\/f1-grand-prix-of-azerbaijan-practice-70\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/racefansdotnet-24-09-19-17-30-26-1-18-friday-baku-2025.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-post-image\" alt=\"Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Baku City Circuit, 2025\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Formula 1 is set to break the course record for the <a title=\"Baku City Circuit\" href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/f1-information\/going-to-a-race\/baku-city-circuit-track-information\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Baku City Circuit<\/a> if conditions remain favourable.<\/p>\n<p>However the changing weather forecast means that cannot be taken for granted.<\/p>\n<p>Teams\u2019 2024 performance in context<\/p>\n<p>Baku\u2019s combination of long straights, slow corners and a low-grip surface tends to suit some cars much more than others. Last year Ferrari and Williams were much more competitive at Baku than they were most other circuits on the calendar.<\/p>\n<p>Teams\u2019 progress vs 2024<\/p>\n<p>Friday\u2019s times sheets gave a less useful guide to overall pace than usual partly because some drivers found more pace from the medium compound tyre. Formula 1\u2019s official tyre supplier Pirelli has brought its softest range of rubber this weekend, but as was the case when it previously appeared at Imola, Monaco and Montreal, the softest rubber isn\u2019t necessarily the best tyre for a single flying lap.<\/p>\n<p>McLaren also had a rough day and clearly never got close to their true pace. Red Bull also kept plenty in reserve, which is typical for them.<\/p>\n<p>Combined lap times<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/lewis-hamilton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lewis Hamilton<\/a> set the pace on Friday with a best lap time slightly quicker than his team mate\u2019s pole-winning time from last year. Charles Leclerc is something of a Baku specialist, having taken the last four pole positions at this track, and set the current course record with a lap of 1\u201940.203 in 2023. <\/p>\n<p>Last year lap times improved by over two seconds from Friday to Saturday as the track cleaned up, so it would be no surprise to see that record fall. However the weather may prevent that. <\/p>\n<p>Some forecasts now put the risk of rain on Saturday morning as high as 60% at times. That will fall ahead of the start of F1 qualifying at 4pm, but the track could already be wet by then.<\/p>\n<p>Miss nothing from RaceFans<\/p>\n<p>Get a daily email with all our latest stories &#8211; and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:<\/p>\n<p>2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/tag\/2025-azerbaijan-grand-prix\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Browse all 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix articles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 is set to break the course record for the Baku City Circuit if conditions remain favourable.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[67182,1687,372,6537,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-148732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-2025-azerbaijan-grand-prix","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}