It's a real shame for Williams. We all thought the start to their season couldn't get any worse - but it did - and it wasn't their fault.

BBC Sport visited George Russell at Grove, the Williams factory last week. Here George shows us the replacement chassis they had (as all teams do) ready for this weekend. His famous last words were: "let's hope we don't need it."

But, they do. Williams have confirmed they need to change the chassis due to severe damage, and FIA regulations mean he won't be able to run until final practice tomorrow.

Only Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc managed to set a lap time in this morning's session.

Sorry George.

Image source, BBC Sport

This is our circuit and pitlane... which we're all eager to get going with again.

Image source, Reuters

Valtteri Bottas, speaking in yesterday's press conference says: "It's a unique race, anything can happen here."

Yes...... it can. We couldn't have written that series of events for Williams.

Paul Nicholson: With that being entirely the fault of the track organisers, @WilliamsRacing, external should be allowed to use a spare car & all the new parts it needs, without penalty. Such a shame for the team and shameful for those in charge of track maintenance

Lady T: Ok, so if this had occurred in the race say on the 1st/2nd lap then what? Would the race have been cancelled? They would have to check all '300' before the race could be restarted?

Chris Marsh: Who thought letting Maldonado drive the recovery truck was a good idea!?

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton on Instagram.

Image source, Getty Images

According to Renault, the Baku street circuit has around 300 manhole covers. And after this morning's incident, it could've been much worse, so all of these need to be checked.

Image source, rex

The eagle has landed. Bernie Ecclestone, speaking on bringing a race to Baku says: "When we first talked about it, I thought Baku was south of Florida. Since then there's been an awful lot of work here."

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Baku isn't short on cash.

Worth mentioning that Azerbaijan pays the largest race fee out of the entire calendar for this event.

So Claire Williams will be wanting reparations for that I can imagine.

Image source, Getty Images

We've heard from race control the circuit is being investigated. All the manhole covers are being checked, the debris from Russell's car is being cleared up, but now the bridge needs to be checked for structural integrity.

George Russell's car has finally made it back to the pit lane, covered in hydraulic fluid and rescued from a second recovery truck.

The manhole cover was disrupted by Leclerc - only one of two drivers to set a lap time in this session, and sadly for Russell who was next to pass, he took the brunt of it.

Jeroen Demmendaal: If George Russell didn't have bad luck, he wouldn't have any luck at all. Can imagine he would just like to disappear into that manhole right now...

Daniel Eckersley: How will this stoppage affect the teams' preparation for the race?

Muhammad Alkourashi: What are often the financial compensations often involved between the FIA and the teams if track situations like this occur?

Image source, Reuters

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

You absolutely could not script this!

There's hydraulic fluid on the engine cover of George Russell's car.

The Williams team just looking on in bemusement!

Claire Williams, deputy team principal of Williams, says: "I haven't had a chat with George yet, the car has got a lot of damage.

"We have to wait to see, what the damage is - it's taken the whole underside out and the circuit needs to make sure the covers are down properly and that means we could be out this afternoon because of that. I will be picking it up with race control."

Image source, ge

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

There is now fluid on the back of the engine cover. Williams engineers are looking on with amusement Claire Williams looked annoyed just a few minutes ago... the fluid can be wiped off as long as there's no fire damage.