Azerbaijanese GP: Timetables and everything you need to know

Dafter a short break of a week, the Formula 1 World Championship is back this weekend with the Azerbaijan GP. It takes place in Baku City Circuit, an urban layout drawn on the streets of that country's capital.

Kimi Antonelli on top and mastering

Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been the great protagonist of the season. The 20-year-old from Mercedes comes from two motivating consecutive victories achieved in challenging races – which allowed you to extend to 81 points the advantage at the top of the championship. A triumph in Azerbaijan can bring you even closer to the title.

His main stalker is teammate George Russell, who has not yet thrown the towel to the ground despite the punctual deficit and not win a race in almost three months.

Next up is Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), with less than 20 points than his countryman and only five more than the championship champion, Lando Norris. McLaren's man is going through the best phase of the year and, two weeks ago in Spain, showed pace to win – ending in third fruit of the circumstances of the race and not for lack of material.

The top five is closed by Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) in front of Max Verstappen. The champion is still looking for the first victory of 2026Since it arrived at Red Bull in 2016, it has never been a year without climbing to the highest place on the podium. Dutch is also in its best period of 2026, with five podiums in the last seven tests.

Squad back to normal

Isack Hadjar (Red Bull/Ford) is back in action after the injury suffered on a pulse during the summer break that drove him away from the previous three rounds. Thus, the platoon returns to normalcy, with Frenchman serving Red Bull and Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls.

Interestingly, the two occupy contiguous positions in the championship: Hadjar is eighth and Lawson the ninth with less 12 points – and with more 18 than Pierre Gasly (Alpine/Mercedes), who had a GP from Spain to forget and saw Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) stand just ten points from his tenth position in the World.

When the season approaches the final stage, there are still three pilots without pointsLance Stroll (Aston Martin/Honda) and the duo of Cadillac, Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas.

The circuit

Visited since 2016, the Baku City Circuit is a temporary city circuit in the streets of Baku, which has 20 curves. A turn extends for more than six kilometres (6,003 km), on a track that combines a high-speed zone with a long acceleration section that leads to the straight of the goal with more winding parts – particularly at turn 8, around the castle.

The record race lap was established by Charles Leclerc in 1m43,009 seconds in the 2019 edition. The best lap ever (1m40,203 seconds) also belongs to the Monegasque, but was made in the qualification of 2023. Red Bull is the most successful team, with five triumphs (two of them by Max Verstappen and two others by Sergio Pérez, who are the only “repetents”)

Different program, different times

The Azerbaijan GP program is different from usual, taking place between Thursday (today, 24 september) and saturday (September 26) – this to avoid the Day of the Azerbaijanian Memory, which is marked on Sunday.

The timetables are also different from usual for a European round, with the sunday race taking place at 12 noon (Time of Continental Portugal, minus one in the Azores).

In addition, the programme has the usual distribution of sessions between the three days of the Grand Prix, as you can see from the times presented to it (by the time of Continental Portugal, minus one in the Azores).

• Thursday, 24 September
  • 09:30-10:30: Free training 1
  • 13:00-14:00: Free training 2
• Friday, September 25th
  • 09:30-10:30: Free training 3
  • 13h00h-14h00: Qualification
• Saturday, September 26
  • 12h00: Race (51 laps or two hours)