Friday's practice session ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was brought to a halt after Pierre Gasly's Alpine caught fire.

Following a four-week break, Formula One has returned and the drivers were getting some practice laps in prior to the afternoon's qualifying session for Sunday's race.

However, flames and smoke started to come out of the back of Gasly's car and he had to pull over, while the red flag was immediately brought out to stop the session. Gasly was able to get out of his car and to safety.

The incident happened around 15 minutes into practice, and the response from the stewards was swift as they quickly arrived on the scene with fire extinguishers to put out the flames. 

Gasly was able to walk away, but appeared frustrated as his session was brought to an abrupt halt on a weekend where there is limited practice running due to the new sprint race format. 

After clearing the track and ensuring Gasly had got himself to safety, the practice session was allowed to resume.

Gasly has picked up four points from the opening three races of the season having secured back-to-back ninth-place finishes in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

He did not finish the most recent race in Australia, though, and has now endured a nightmare start to his weekend in Baku.

As practice restarted on Friday, he remained back at the Alpine garage as his team got to work on getting his car ready for the upcoming qualifying session. 

Reigning world champion Max Verstapppen edged out Charles Leclerc to finish fastest in the sole practice session at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Formula One bosses have changed the weekend format in Baku, with the introduction of two qualifying sessions - one to decide the order for Sunday's grand prix, and the other determining the starting grid for Saturday's sprint race, the first of six sprint events this season.

Practice has been slashed from three hours to just one, ahead of qualifying for Sunday's main event at 5pm local time (2pm UK) on Friday.

The reduction in practice is designed to create greater jeopardy with the teams unable to gather as much data as they would like.

In an incident-packed session, Yuki Tsunoda limped back to the pits on three wheels after he banged the wall, while Ferrari's Carlos Sainz also brushed the armco at the tight and twisty street circuit on the Caspian Sea.

Double world champion Verstappen has won two of the opening three rounds to establish a 15-point lead over Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.

On Friday, the Dutch driver pipped Leclerc to top spot by just 0.037 seconds. Perez finished third, a tenth down on his Red Bull team-mate, while Sainz recovered from his brush with the barrier to take fourth.

Lando Norris provided some encouragement for McLaren to finish fifth, eight tenths down on Verstappen.

But Lewis Hamilton could manage only 11th for Mercedes, 1.5 sec back off the pace with team-mate George Russell also struggling, taking the chequered flag 17th of the 20 runners.

Elsewhere, Nyck de Vries finished sixth in his AlphaTauri ahead of the Aston Martin duo of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.