Having made its debut five years ago as the European Grand Prix, Baku has delivered some of the best races of modern-day F1, with the 2017 and '18 events still fresh in the memory of motorsport fans.
The street circuit features a long 2.0km 'straight' from Turn 16, with drivers staying full throttle until the heavy braking zone at Turn 1. This leads to a slipstream fest, and it would be interesting to see how teams take advantage of it in qualifying.
The circuit then gets narrower as it reaches the Old City, with some sections only 7.6 metres wide.
Red Bull heads to Baku with renewed confidence following Max Verstappen's dominant victory in Monaco, aided by a weekend to forget for chief rival Mercedes.
The unique demands of Baku, with its mixture of long straights and 90-degree turns, gets the engineers scratching their heads, so Mercedes cannot afford to get the set-up wrong and let Red Bull extend its lead in the championship.
However, with three victories in the last four races in the Azerbaijan capital, the German marque does have a lot of data to bank on.
2021 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix session timings in different timezones
Session | GMT | BST | CEST | ET | PT | AEST | JST | IST |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FP1 | 08:30 | 09:30 | 10:30 | 04:30 | 01:30 | 18:30 | 17:30 | 14:00 |
FP2 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 08:00 | 05:00 | 22:00 | 21:00 | 17:30 |
FP3 | 09:00 | 10:00 | 11:00 | 05:00 | 02:00 | 19:00 | 18:00 | 14:30 |
Qualifying | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 08:00 | 05:00 | 22:00 | 21:00 | 17:30 |
Race | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 08:00 | 05:00 | 22:00 | 21:00 | 17:30 |
2021 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP session timings in Azerbaijan
Thursday 4th June 2021
- Free Practice 1: 12:30 - 13:30 local time
- Free Practice 2: 16:00 - 17:00 local time
Saturday 5th June 2021
- Free Practice 3: 13:00 - 14:00 local time
- Qualifying: 16:00 - 17:00 local time
Sunday 6th June 2021
- Race: 16:00 - 18:00 local time
2021 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP session timings in the UK/Portugal
Thursday 4th June 2021
- Free Practice 1: 09:30 - 10:30 BST
- Free Practice 2: 13:00 - 14:00 BST
Saturday 5th June 2021
- Free Practice 3: 10:00 - 11:00 BST
- Qualifying: 13:00 - 14:00 BST
Sunday 6th June 2021
- Race: 13:00 - 15:00 BST
2021 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP session timings in Europe
Thursday 4th June 2021
- Free Practice 1: 10:30 - 11:30 CEST
- Free Practice 2: 14:00 - 15:00 CEST
Saturday 5th June 2021
- Free Practice 3: 11:00 - 12:00 CEST
- Qualifying: 14:00 - 15:00 CEST
Sunday 6th June 2021
- Race: 14:00 - 16:00 CEST
2021 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP session timings in the US
Thursday 4th June 2021
- Free Practice 1: 04:30 - 05:30 ET / 01:30 - 02:30 PT
- Free Practice 2: 08:00 - 09:00 ET / 05:00 - 06:00 PT
Saturday 5th June 2021
- Free Practice 3: 05:00 - 06:00 ET / 02:00 - 03:00 PT
- Qualifying: 08:00 - 09:00 ET / 05:00 - 06:00 PT
Sunday 6th June 2021
- Race: 08:00 - 10:00 PT / 05:00 - 07:00 PT

Cars and team personnel on the grid before the race
Photo by: Joe Portlock / Motorsport Images
2021 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP session timings in Australia
Thursday 4th June 2021
- Free Practice 1: 18:30 - 19:30 AEST
- Free Practice 2: 22:00 - 23:00 AEST
Saturday 5th June 2021
- Free Practice 3: 19:00 - 20:00 AEST
- Qualifying: 22:00 - 23:00 AEST
Sunday 6th June 2021
- Race: 22:00 - 00:00 AEST
2021 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP session timings in Japan
Thursday 4th June 2021
- Free Practice 1: 17:30 - 18:30 JST
- Free Practice 2: 21:00 - 22:00 JST
Saturday 5th June 2021
- Free Practice 3: 18:00 - 19:00 JST
- Qualifying: 21:00 - 22:00 JST
Sunday 6th June 2021
- Race: 21:00 - 23:00 JST
2021 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP session timings in India
Thursday 4th June 2021
- Free Practice 1: 14:00 - 15:00 IST
- Free Practice 2: 17:30 - 18:30 IST
Saturday 5th June 2021
- Free Practice 3: 14:30 - 15:30 IST
- Qualifying: 17:30 - 18:30 IST
Sunday 6th June 2021
- Race: 17:30 - 19:30 IST
Can’t find your country or region in the list? Check the Formula 1 schedule page for the broadcast times in your local timezone.
Pirelli tyre allocation for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Pirelli is bringing the C3, C4 and C5 tyre for the Azerbaijan GP this year. This is a step softer than the last time F1 raced in Baku in 2019 and the same allocation as last month's Monaco GP.