Bottas leads the way in FP1 but Verstappen hits a wall
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
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.
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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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