Red Bull leads opening practice at Baku

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Azerbaijan, Baku Street Circuitaz

Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen topped the first practice session for the Azerbaijani Grand Prix, lapping the street track of Baku nearly half a second faster than his team mate. Sebastian Vettel was third fastest in the Ferrari despite not using Pirelli's super soft tyres.

A tenth down on Ricciardo, Vettel went off onto the escape road at Turn 3 and 8 and retained the soft tyre while most other drivers opted to have their fastest outings on the super softs, the softed compound available at Baku for this weekend.

Just when both Red Bulls had jumped to the top of the timesheets, Sergio Perez slammed the wall at the right Turn 8, having been a little bit too eager on the kerbs on the left hand side. Moments before that, Perez had set his fastest time of the session, and looked set to target further improvements.

The damage to the right hand side of the Force India was such that it took 14 minutes to clear the car and all the debris, leaving just 5 minutes on the clock for anybody else to improve on their laptimes.

Nothing much materialised in the final moment, leaving Hamilton slightly frustrated as his attempts on the super softs were hampered by traffic. He was still 3 tenths fastest than team mate Valtteri Bottas, while Esteban Ocon acquinted himself with the track well enough to go 7th fastest.

Felipe Massa, who topped the times early in the session was 8th fastest, ahead of Raikkonen and Kvyat who completed the top 10.

Results

Pos.No.DriverCarTimeGapLaps
133Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:44.41019
23Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:44.880+0.470s22
35Sebastian VettelFerrari1:44.967+0.557s20
411Sergio PerezForce India Mercedes1:45.398+0.988s16
544Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:45.497+1.087s16
677Valtteri BottasMercedes1:45.737+1.327s19
731Esteban OconForce India Mercedes1:45.752+1.342s24
819Felipe MassaWilliams Mercedes1:45.968+1.558s25
97Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:46.000+1.590s18
1026Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1:46.617+2.207s11
1118Lance StrollWilliams Mercedes1:46.649+2.239s28
1220Kevin MagnussenHaas Ferrari1:46.721+2.311s23
138Romain GrosjeanHaas Ferrari1:46.837+2.427s22
1427Nico HulkenbergRenault1:47.217+2.807s21
152Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren Honda1:47.446+3.036s22
1655Carlos SainzToro Rosso1:47.501+3.091s13
1714Fernando AlonsoMcLaren Honda1:47.551+3.141s20
1830Jolyon PalmerRenault1:48.525+4.115s15
1994Pascal WehrleinSauber Ferrari1:49.048+4.638s19
209Marcus EricssonSauber Ferrari1:49.937+5.527s21