Formula One: Azerbaijan Grand Prix – live

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With whom would you rather have a jar: Christian Horner or Toto Wolff?

I’ve always kind of wondered how these races would go if the cars were the kind of jalopy I bought for £400 when I was 17, an X-reg Fiesta with go faster stripes. Perhaps a few width restrictors, speed humps and roundabouts would also shake thingsa up.

Eight minutes to lights-out and barely a mention of Lewis Hamilton. He needs a proper car a-sap.

Toto Wolff tells Sky they had good moments yesterday when Russell was fast at the end, but thinks he needs to make up a few places quickly then be patient. On Russell/Verstappz, he says it’s emotional , banter, and a bit of fun.

There’s a chamber feel to this.

It’s pretty hot on the track, much more so than earlier in the weekend – we’ll see how that affects things. But for now, it’s anthem time.

Russell says no hard feelings with Verstappz and he’ll shake his hands when he sees him. But what’ll happen next time they meet wheel-to-wheel? He also says he was thinking about softs, but he got a message on his radio yesterday that Norris – who’s with him – was struggling on them.

Christian Horner says he could understand Verstappen’s vex yesterday, his car wasn’t working as meant to. But he shook it off quickly and both Red Bull’s drivers are free to race on a track that can be brutal – they just need to bring home as many points as possible.

Yesterday, Pérez overtook Leclerc from 0.569s behind. That must be terrifying for everyone not driving a Red Bull. Given the track, it seems unlikely his Ferrari will be in front for long, nor much of a threat once passed.

On that point, I should also say that overkill is annoying for fans, but for players things can be more painful. The mental and physical stress of competing so often, of being away from home all the time, and having so little time to relax is not easily borne.

Email! “Max is a great racer,” says Yash Gupta, “and he also polarises people with his style which I quite like: elbows out and stuff. However he’s bang on about this F1 schedule. It is getting crowded more and more and as a result I’m already starting to lose a bit of interest. F1 should take a look at football. You can only add so much stuff before traditional supporters get worn out. You can parade around higher sponsorship deals but ultimately it takes its toll. I’ve already lost interest in wrestling, cricket and same has started with football especially since November. With upcoming changes F1 might be next.”

Yes, I’d say cricket in particular is struggling with this issue – it feels like it’s in the throes of becoming two different things: Tests and T20. This is what happens when those who run ting think sport exists to make money, rather than makes money because it exists.

Or this piece:

This has nothing to do with F1 but also everything to do with F1 because it has everything to do with everything – see the piece below, for example.

Catch yourselves up on the weekend’s action so far:

Also going on:

Our grid

Ocon and Hulkenberg to start from pit-lane.

“It’s great racing track,” says Damon Hill, also bigging up Baku the city. If only it was so simple.

Preamble

Before the first race of the season in Bahrain, we discussed in these pages that, though we knew what was going to happen – Max Verstappen and Red Bull winning again, going away – in the course of that, stuff would also happen. And, as we get ready for Azerbaijan (land of fire), that very much looks to be the case.

We’ve got the new sprint-race format going – to the chagrin of the champion, naturally protective of an existing system that favours him – and following yesterday’s iteration, he and George Russell got into it after a little on-track contretemps. The ensuing accusations of dickheadery and vows of revenge – everything that no one wants to see – promise to sustain us through this term and hopefully for many more to come.

Also fascinating were Verstappen’s comments at the start of the weekend. “I have to be careful what I say now,” he said. “I’ve always said anyway that even if there weren’t any more sprint races, but if we keep expanding the calendar and the whole weekend is that long, at one point you question yourself ‘is it worth it?’ “I do like racing, I do like winning. I know that of course the salary and everything, you have a good life, but is it actually a good life?”

He went on to say that he’s enjoying it at the moment and has a contract till 2028, but also that he has other ambitions. Which is to say the sport is on notice: its current golden boy is already contemplating the end, which might come sooner than we thought. And beyond that, if the life it imposes on those involved is suboptimal even for the driver it’s bringing most success, perhaps something needs re-evaluating?

Lights out: 3pm local, 12pm BST