26/04/2019
NEWS STORY
Following the damage incurred in today's opening practice session, Williams has had to give George Russell a new chassis for the remainder of the weekend.
"Owing to the damage caused by the loose drain cover, (George's) car will require a chassis change and therefore, due to regulations, he will not be able to run until FP3 tomorrow," tweeted the team around 15 minutes after FP1 was scheduled to end.
On a day that will see F1 back on the front pages for all the wrong reasons again, the Baku weekend was slowly turning to farce.
First we had the session abandoned after 20 minutes after a loose manhole cover on the back straight between turns 2 and 3 wrecked the rear end of the Williams, then we had the sight of the low-loader returning the car to the pits crashing into a bridge. "You couldn't make it up," as they say.
"It's clear from the data that there's probably a lot of damage to the floor of the car," said an understandably angry Claire Williams, before it was confirmed that the chassis was too badly damaged to continue. "We'll have to wait and see if that chassis is repairable.
"The circuit needs to make sure that their drain covers are bolted down properly," she added. "This is just not acceptable. The damage that that can do could put us out this afternoon. We have another chassis that we might need to bring in.
"That's not what Formula 1 tracks should be," she continued. "We'll be taking that up with race control."
"I just hit it and got the biggest smack through my body," said Russell. "I was just going down the straight on my normal line. It's completely ruined our session, not ideal.
"I'm alright," he added, "I'm a tough guy."
Check out our Friday gallery from Baku, here.