Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was looking in impressive form on Friday afternoon during second practice for the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
His closest challenger in the session was Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. The Shanghai race winner's team mate Max Verstappen also bounced back from his FP1 mishap to go third fastest, despite suffering from a late power unit glitch.
The top three were well ahead of the two Mercedes cars of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton, while a spin on his flying lap left Sebastian Vettel idling outside the top ten.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Free Practice 2
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:42.795s | 35 | |
| 2 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:42.864s | + 0.069s | 33 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:42.911s | + 0.116s | 27 |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:43.570s | + 0.775s | 25 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:43.603s | + 0.808s | 31 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:43.700s | + 0.905s | 34 |
| 7 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1:43.814s | + 1.019s | 30 |
| 8 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1:43.834s | + 1.039s | 36 |
| 9 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:43.977s | + 1.182s | 29 |
| 10 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1:44.091s | + 1.296s | 33 |
| 11 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:44.127s | + 1.332s | 38 |
| 12 | Sergio Pérez | Force India | 1:44.142s | + 1.347s | 31 |
| 13 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:44.425s | + 1.630s | 27 |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 1:44.459s | + 1.664s | 31 |
| 15 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1:44.712s | + 1.917s | 39 |
| 16 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 1:44.940s | + 2.145s | 30 |
| 17 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 1:45.007s | + 2.212s | 33 |
| 18 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 1:45.051s | + 2.256s | 36 |
| 19 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1:45.288s | + 2.493s | 29 |
| 20 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:46.042s | + 3.247s | 9 |
The second 90-minute free practice in Baku picked up where the early session had left off. Plenty of drivers found themselves locking up or needing to take to run-off areas. Brendon Hartley went hurtling into the escape road at turn 15 in the Toro Rosso, while Raikkonen had a slower off-track diversion at turn 2 - as did his team mate Sebastian Vettel. Sergio Perez (Force India) and morning pace setter Valtteri Bottas also found themselves off-roading at turns 3 and 1 respectively.
Spanish compatriots Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso were early visitors to the top of the timing screens for Renault and McLaren respectively. However it was Ricciardo who put in the first serious bid of 1:43.947s on supersofts to lead by over a second from Haas' Kevin Magnussen after 15 minutes. The Australian continued to improve his times, eventually setting a new target time of 1:42.796s on ultras to keep him well ahead of Bottas and Hamilton.
Ricciardo's team mate Max Verstappen was late to join the party, after Red Bull engineers worked through lunch to repair his RB14 following his accident in FP1. Verstappen's first flying lap saw him with a big lock-up at turn 3, but he soon put in a better showing to go second ahead of both Silver Arrows. He continued to improve, but also brushed the wall at turn 7 to remind him of the cost of pushing too hard at this fiendishly challenging street circuit.
After a subdued start to the day, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel started to spark into life. He briefly went fourth on ultrasofts, but a subsequent flying lap attempt saw him spin at turn 15. As other cars completed faster qualifying simulation laps, Vettel found himself dropping outside the top ten. Instead it fell to his team mate Kimi Raikkonen to break into the Red Bull lock-out at the top, going second just 0.069s behind Ricciardo at the midway point.
The latter half of the session switched focus on longer distance race simulations, as teams assessed tyre wear on the street circuit. Even so, the on-track incidents continued to come thick and fast with further near misses at escape roads for Raikkonen, Grosjean, Sainz and Perez as well as Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly, among others.
There were no stoppages or safety cars (virtual or otherwise) required in the session. However there was a worrying development for Verstappen at the end of the session when he was ordered to limp back to pit lane on low power with suspected power unit issues. Team boss Christian Horner dismissed it as a minor issue, suggesting it was merely a faulty sensor.
The top times remained in place through to the chequered flag. Ricciardo and Raikkonen duly kept their tenth of a second edge over Verstappen, with Bottas and Hamilton the best of the rest over half a second further back. Alonso was the only other car within a second of Ricciardo's time, with Force India's Esteban Ocon seventh fastest ahead of Sainz and Magnussen.
Rounding out the top ten was Renault's Nico Hulkenberg, despite the German having lost time while the team affixed a new underfloor plank to his R.S.18.
Sauber's Marcus Ericsson was benched for significantly longer than Hulkenberg. His car developed a gearbox issue after half an hour, leaving the Swede slowest of the 20 drivers in action on Friday having completed a mere nine laps.
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