Team Summary:
The opening Friday practice for the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix would get underway with a rush of drivers coming out including the first of the Williams. The second Williams car would be second last to come out with the majority of drivers on the medium tyre. Both Aston Martins were on the soft and both Ferrari's the hard. Bottas would set the first time with a 1m:53.677 followed by Sainz and Gasly. But the times would quickly change with Verstappen quickest with a 1m:48.574 followed by Perez and Leclerc. The Williams pair would currently be 12th and 15th as Schumacher was to suffer a water leak seeing him having to pull off the track ending his session.

Gasly was now third followed by Ricciardo, Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso, Bottas, Norris and Hamilton tenth. The VSC would be applied but shortly after the session would restart and Verstappen would set a 1m:46.932 ahead of Perez and now Alonso. Leclerc would move in to second with Sainz now fifth ahead of Gasly. The Williams pair were currently 15th and 16th but with an engine issue one car was out of the session which had produced another VSC. Gasly was now fourth and Tsunoda now fifth ahead of Sainz. With thirty two minutes remaining we would see the remaining Williams return for a run on the soft tyre.

Drivers would start to come out for soft tyre runs including the Williams. On the soft tyre Verstappen would set a 1m:46.477 remaining quickest. He would improve with a 1m:45.810 to extend his lead at the front. Perez was second followed by Leclerc but Sainz would move into this spot but Perez on the soft tyre would set 1m:45.476 to be quickest ahead of his team-mate. Sainz was now third followed by Leclerc, Alonso, Tsunoda, Norris, and Russell eighth. With fifteen minutes remaining Hamilton would move up to be fifth as we then saw Leclerc go second. ten minutes remaining and we would have the Williams return going back to the medium tyre. The session would end with the order Perez, Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz, Alonso Hamilton, Tsunoda, Russell, Gasly and Ocon tenth. The Williams drivers would finish in 17th and 19th in a session which again really shows the limitations of the FW44 as it currently stands.

Alex Albon:
After a bit of a delay Alex would follow out Nicholas also using the medium tyre. Alex would set a 1m:52.740 to be eighth dropping to 12th. He would improve with a 1m:50.101 but would drop to 14th. This would become 16th as he pitted after a seven lap run. Alex with just over thirty minutes remaining would return on the soft tyre. With a 1m:48.419 would see Alex ninth. Alex would pit after a five lap run but would return currently 11th still on the soft. He would drop to 13th commenting to his engineer "I have a good feeling that the hot car is going to be powerful again. Just doing the push-cool, the tyre feels so different..." Alex would pit after a two lap run currently 14th. Ten minutes remaining and Alex would return using used medium tyres as he dropped to 17th. He would finish the session with a seven lap run on the medium.

Nicholas Latifi:
Nicholas would be first out for Williams running on the medium tyre. He would set a 1m:56.563 to be seventh but dropped to tenth. This would quickly become 19th but with a 1m:53.395 he would be 15th. Nicholas would set a 1m:50.921 to now be 16th. Nicholas would say that he car just died and had come back on again but had again switched off. His car would be removed from the side of the track but for Nicholas it was his session over. He had dropped to 19th as the session progressed.