WATCH: Pierre Gasly Out Of Azerbaijan GP FP1 As Alpine Bursts Into Flames
Pierre Gasly has had a disastrous start to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend with his Alpine bursting into flames during the free practice session.
With the change in sprint race weekend format, the Alpine team are now under tremendous pressure to get the car ready for the qualifying session which is later today.
Gasly was forced to stop on the track causing the session to be put under red-flag conditions. This is crucial for the other drivers and teams with there only being one free practice session before the rest of the weekend's action.
The next few hours will be critical for Alpine to see if they can get Gasly into the qualifying session with repairs. It is also unclear as to how many spare parts the team has with the new upgrades they have brought to the weekend.
It is yet to be confirmed what caused the problem for the Frenchman so we are expecting further information over the course of the day.
UPDATE
It's now been confirmed that the fire begun thanks to a hydraulic leak.