AZERBAIJAN GP – Ricciardo fastest by six hundreds of a second over Raikkonen
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was fastest in the second practice session for this weekends Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Australian was six hundredths of a second faster than the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, with teammate Max Verstappen third.
Ricciardo set his fastest time on supersofts tyres, it appeared as his only on track challenge was his teammate. Verstappen finished the session a tenth off his teammate, while Raikkonen got to within six thousandths of a second of the benchmark.
It was encouraging for the Finn, after his morning session was cut short. However his teammate Sebastian Vettel could only manage eleventh fastest, after he spun three times and struggled to get a lap together. Mercedes also struggled to match Ricciardo as Valtteri Bottas was seven tenths off the pace.
Lewis Hamilton was forced to abort what looked like a competitive lap after setting the fastest first sector, that meant he was eight tenths off the pace in fifth place. Mercedes were expected to be very strong in Baku after strong performance over the last two years.
Signs of progress came for McLaren, following there bumpy start to the season as Fernando Alonso was sixth fastest and within a second of Ricciardo. Over the past few weeks, McLaren has been working to close that straight line speed deficit.
McLaren have been struggling with a lack of straight-line speed this season as focus has switched to the quality of their chassis after there years of blaming their former Honda engines for their lack of performance.
Esteban Ocon was seventh fastest with the Force India driver being a tenth behind Alonso. Renault’s Carlos Sainz was also just over a tenth behind, Kevin Magnussen was ninth as Haas returned to form, while Nico Hulkenberg completed the top ten.
Sergio Perez and Romain Grosjean were both three tenths off their teammates but had had a two tenths gap over their teammates.
Pierre Gasly was fifteenth in the Toro Rosso ahead of Charles Leclerc in the Sauber, Sergey Sirotkin’s Williams and Brendon Hartley’s Toro Rosso.
Stoffel Vandoorne and Marcus Ericsson failed to set their fastest times on the ultra-soft tyres and were left in 19th and 20th at the bottom of the timesheets.
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