Round 15 of the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with Thursday practice at the Baku City Circuit as teams prepared for Saturday's 51-lap Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Both TGR Haas F1 Team drivers Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman sampled the Pirelli P Zero White hard and Red soft tires in the opening 60-minute session - FP1. After baseline stints on the hard compound, both VF-26s switched onto the soft rubber. Ocon subsequently produced a best lap of 1:46.624 to claim seventh on the timesheets. Bearman's fastest outing - a 1:46.994, placing 15th overall at the checkered flag.

Bearman's participation in FP2 lasted just a handful of laps as a power unit issue sidelined his VF-26 at the start of an out lap on soft tires - the Briton having commenced the session with a run on the Yellow medium compound. Ocon too started on medium rubber before swapping to softs for his quali sim laps. The Frenchman posted a quick lap of 1:45.290 to hold P9 - a second straight landing spot for Ocon inside the top 10 to start his weekend.

TGR Haas F1 Team ran a total of 76 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 - 44 by Ocon, with 32 from Bearman.

Ollie Bearman: "It was a tough day with a failure on the car, which meant I didn't really get any laps in FP2. Generally though, it felt like a better afternoon than morning, so we made a step forward on the car, and I'm quite happy about that. We'll see what we can do tomorrow, as it's tough missing out on both low- and high-fuel running, but I had good confidence, so we'll do our best for Friday."

Esteban Ocon: "I think the pace of the car is pretty decent - we found a good rhythm out there, improving lap by lap. From FP1, the first lap I completed, I was P6 or P7, so I thought we could work from there. We had a decent feel and the car feels healthy, so hopefully it can continue for the rest of the weekend. It was a much nicer day than last year where I couldn't brake anywhere - now we can attack the corners, which is very nice."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It was a mixed day really because it wasn't a trouble-free FP1, and in FP2, Ollie had another PU issue which ended his session - so we're still investigating the cause of that, as that's concerning. A bit like Madrid, the tires are on the edge, but when you get tire preparation right, it seems like our car has speed. Car balance is pretty good and it gives our drivers confidence, which is exactly what you need at a street circuit like this. There are positive signs in terms of car performance, but we need to get to the bottom of this reliability issue and then tomorrow morning, focus on quali tire preparation. If we execute well, I believe we can fight."

Check out our Thursday gallery from Baku here.