Valtteri Bottas topped the timesheet in Friday's first free practice session in Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He edged out Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and his own Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton.
The Finn clocked in with a best lap of 1m44.242s executed on Pirelli's ultrasoft tyre after a decent session for the Silver Arrows outfit. But in the Red Bull camp, Max Verstappen ended his morning prematurely with a significant brush with the barriers.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Free Practice 1
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:44.242s | 26 | |
| 2 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:44.277s | + 0.035s | 24 |
| 3 | Sergio Pérez | Force India | 1:45.075s | + 0.833s | 26 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:45.200s | + 0.958s | 24 |
| 5 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1:45.237s | + 0.995s | 29 |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:45.559s | + 1.317s | 11 |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:46.465s | + 2.223s | 25 |
| 8 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 1:46.480s | + 2.238s | 28 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1:46.492s | + 2.250s | 18 |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:46.513s | + 2.271s | 18 |
| 11 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 1:46.590s | + 2.348s | 26 |
| 12 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 1:46.747s | + 2.505s | 32 |
| 13 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1:46.749s | + 2.507s | 11 |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:46.856s | + 2.614s | 23 |
| 15 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:46.861s | + 2.619s | 10 |
| 16 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 1:46.875s | + 2.633s | 21 |
| 17 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:47.073s | + 2.831s | 21 |
| 18 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:47.434s | + 3.192s | 18 |
| 19 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1:47.967s | + 3.725s | 21 |
| 20 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1:48.741s | + 4.499s | 11 |
Baku dawned warm and sunny, but drivers were challenged from the outset by the venue's green track that produced a few hairy moments early on for some.
Bottas best effort was 0.035s faster than Ricciardo, but the Aussie completed his lap on the theoretically supersoft tyre.
A surprise pair of visitors to the top five, given their recent relative under-performance, was the Force India duo of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon.
The Mexican clocked in third overall, with his team mate fifth. They were just behind Mercedes' Hamilton who ran diligently through his FP1 programs, setting his best time on the ultrasoft rubber but without forcing any issues.
Despite his limited running following his crash half-way through the morning, when he lost the rear of his RB14 under braking for Turn Five, Verstappen managed to secure sixth.
Fernando Alonso placed his McLaren P7 in front of Sergey Sirotkin and an upbeat Williams while Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel rounded off the top ten.
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