Marko hopeful after first free practice: 'Confident that we will be fast'

The first free practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was very good news for Red Bull Racing. The team of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were immediately quick and with a first and fourth place there is also plenty to look forward to for this weekend. Helmut Marko is hopeful for the race on Sunday.

"It went relatively quickly and easily. The things we tried went right away," Marko acknowledged in conversation with ORF after the first free practice session. In recent years Mercedes has been the fastest team through the streets of Baku every year, but this time the German team's drivers were disappointing.

Confidence in Baku

They clearly could not find the speed on the circuit with the long straights, where the slipstream and the DRS will be very important. According to Marko, this allows the times to be even faster, as the fastest times of Verstappen and Perez were without slipstream, according to the Red Bull advisor. "Our times were set without slipstream. So we are confident that we will be hugely competitive here too."

In the first free practice session it did appear that Red Bull were testing slipstreaming each other, but Marko denies that. "No, that's not an intentional move. We had to break Max's lap and that's why they came close to each other. Where they bumped into each other, there was not really an effect of the slipstream," Marko said.