By George Flood
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The 2025 Formula 1 season heads to the streets of Baku this weekend for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Drama and entertainment is almost guaranteed at one of the trickiest circuits to be found anywhere on the F1 calendar, where last year Oscar Piastri delivered only his second-ever career victory in a remarkable finish to an absorbing race that also saw Lando Norris edge out title rival Max Verstappen after a late crash involving Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz.
It was an inauspicious start for the McLaren duo on Friday ahead of the latest chapter in their engrossing championship tussle, with both drivers hitting the wall in the second practice session and damaging their cars as Ferrari showcased their own potential with an impressive early one-two led by Lewis Hamilton.
It’s round 17 of the campaign in Baku, with Piastri currently sitting 31 points clear of Norris at the top of the drivers’ standings with only eight races remaining following a team orders controversy at the Italian Grand Prix a fortnight ago in which McLaren told Piastri to let Norris pass late on following a slow pit stop as the latter finished second behind the victorious Max Verstappen at Monza.
The 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix takes place at the Baku City Circuit on Sunday, September 21.
The race is scheduled to start at 12pm BST, which is 3pm local time.
The first two practice sessions for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix took place on Friday.
FP3 is at 9:30am BST on Saturday, followed by qualifying from 1pm. As mentioned, lights out for the race itself is at midday on Sunday.
TV channel: Every session from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is available to watch live in the UK on Sky Sports F1.
Live stream: Sky Sports subscribers can also watch every session from Baku live online via the Sky Go app.
Free highlights: Channel 4 will show free-to-air highlights of the race from 5:30pm BST on Sunday evening.
The grid order for the race will be determined during qualifying on Saturday afternoon. Check back in then for the results in full.
Some wet weather could make things rather chaotic in Baku this weekend.
Showers are expected both on Friday night and Saturday morning, along with some gusty winds.
The forecast for Sunday is for light rain and wind, with a high temperature of around 21 degrees.
