Daniel Ricciardo ended Friday afternoon on top in the streets of Baku in another mixed session for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.
Kimi Räikkönen managed to get within six-hundredths of Ricciardo’s 1 minute 42.795 seconds, set on ultra-softs tyres. Max Verstappen rounded out the top three just under two-tenths behind team-mate Ricciardo, however an engine problem in the dying seconds of the session will worry both the Dutchman and his mechanics tonight.
In a sluggish start to the afternoon, Ricciardo soon set the early pace, trumping previous leader Kevin Magnussen‘s early time by over a second. Neither Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel could touch the Australian on their first runs on super-soft tyres, as several drivers – including Vettel – had to take to the escape routes with flat-spotted tyres in cooler conditions in the Azeri capital.
As Qualifying simulations shaped the order, Hamilton showed signs of improvements getting within touching distance of Ricciardo; however, the Australian found more pace in his Red Bull, extending his cushion to the Mercedes by sixth-tenths of a second. The 28-year-old set the timing screens alight on six lap-old ultra-softs around halfway through the session, a flurry of purple sectors culminating in the 1:42.795 that was not to be bettered.
There was to be plenty of squabbling behind Ricciardo. Valtteri Bottas, Räikkönen, Hamilton, Carlos Sainz Jr. and the recovered Verstappen – who suffered a large lock-up on his first flying lap of the afternoon – all held third spot at some point. Observers suggested that Mercedes seemed to be having tyre temperature troubles, with both Bottas and Hamilton struggling for grip in the final sector on the ultra-soft compound. How that will shape Qualifying tomorrow is to be revealed.
As attentions turned to race simulations, Ricciardo remained untouched for the rest of the session, showing that Red Bull are truly one of the teams to beat.
Bottas got the better of Hamilton in the Mercedes battle, ending the afternoon in fourth and fifth respectively. The German marque are still searching for their first win of the 2018 season.
Fernando Alonso showed the McLaren F1 Team‘s potential, less than a second outside of Ricciardo’s session best time in sixth. Stoffel Vandoorne had a contrasting session, opting against using the ultra-soft compound and suffering with heavy traffic on his race simulations. He ended the day a disappointing nineteenth.
The Sahara Force India F1 Team may back up Sergio Pérez‘s claim that the team are making constant improvements with the VJM11. However, it wasn’t Pérez who lead the Force India charge. Esteban Ocon took seventh, with the Mexican in twelfth – three tenths shy of the Mercedes junior.
Sainz Jr.’s pace fell away in the later stages of the session. He stayed in the top ten settling in eighth, two places ahead of his Renault Sport Formula 1 Team colleague Nico Hülkenberg.
Like Sainz Jr., Magnussen showed very good early pace in his Haas F1 Team machinery, ending up in ninth between his former employers. Team-mate Romain Grosjean diligently went about his business, half-a-second off of the Dane in thirteenth.
Whilst Räikkönen sat in the top two, Vettel did not make the top ten for Scuderia Ferrari in a frustrating session for the German, as he struggled to get the balance right on his fast run. Once again, the attentions turned to the mystery paddle on the back of Vettel’s steering wheel, its function yet to be disclosed.
Williams Martini Racing and Lance Stroll‘s odds of repeating their podium finish at this race are lengthening by the session. The Canadian struggled with a very “snappy” car on corner entry, having to ask his engineer for suitable changes. However, he was faster than team-mate Sergey Sirotkin by around half-a-second as they finished fourteenth and seventeenth.
One of the cars sandwiched between them was the Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda of Pierre Gasly, who completed 39 laps – the most of anyone in the field. Brendon Hartley clocked 36 laps in a useful afternoon for the Italian team, but he could not make it into the 1 minute 44 bracket, having to settle in eighteenth.
Like Red Bull (to an extent), the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team had one driver suffer a disjointed session. Charles Leclerc, a race winner here in FIA Formula 2, managed sixteenth place. Marcus Ericsson propped up the field, only completing nine laps courtesy of a suspected gearbox issue.
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