Azerbaijan GP: Free Practice #2 - RE-CAP & TIMES

AZERBAIJAN GP - FREE PRACTICE #2 - RE-CAP & RESULTS

    Daniel Ricciardo showed Red Bull’s pace with a series of fast laps in free practice two that put him comfortably top of the order.

    Ricciardo went fastest in the first 10 minutes of the session and consistently found improvements throughout his qualifying simulation that always kept him just out of reach of Mercedes and Ferrari. While others struggled with tyre degradation, Riccardo managed three flying laps, separated by cool down laps, on a single set of ultrasoft tyres.

    He ended the session with a 1m42.795s time, enough to put him 0.069s clear of Kimi Raikkonen in second.

    After a troubled FP1, Max Verstappen managed to head out just 20 minutes into the 90 minute session. He immediately began to push, locking up at turn three and putting himself P8 on his first flying lap. He later improved to third, a tenth of a second slower than his team-mate.

    Verstappen’s session finished early as he cruised back to the pits while the rest of the field started long pace runs. The team believed he may have a problem, but he later explained it was simply a sensor issue.

    Valtteri Bottas was the fastest Merecdes. He was Riccardo’s closest competitor in the first part of the session but couldn’t keep up with the Red Bull’s improvements and ended the day fourth, less than a tenth of a second faster than team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

    Fernando Alonso picked up best of the rest in fifth, ahead of Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz, who was making up for a disappointing FP1.

    Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10. Hulkenberg’s running was limited 
early in the session as the mechanics replaced the plank underneath his car. He managed strong running in the second half, however, completing a total of 33 laps.

    Sebastian Vettel finished outside the top 10 in P11, 1.3s off the pace. He was followed by Sergio Perez, Romain Grosjean, and Lance Stroll.

    Rookies Pierre Gasly, Charles Leclerc, Sergey Sirotkin, and Brendon Hartley filled P15 to P18, ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne.

    Marcus Ericsson, who suffered a gearbox problem early in the session, rounds out the order having only completed nine laps.

TIMES:

1. Daniel Ricciardo - 1:42.795 / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Australia
2. Kimi Raikkonen - 1:42.864 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland
3. Max Verstappen - 1:42.911 / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Netherlands
4. Valtteri Bottas - 1:43.570 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Finland
5. Lewis Hamilton - 1:43.603 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain
6. Fernando Alonso - 1:43.700 / McLaren-Renault / Spain
7. Esteban Ocon - 1:43.814 / Force India-Mercedes / France
8. Carlos Sainz - 1:43.834 / Renault-Renault / Spain
9. Kevin Magnussen - 1:43.977 / Haas-Ferrari / Denmark
10. Nico Hulkenberg - 1:44.091 / Renault-Renault / Germany
11. Sebastian Vettel - 1:44.127 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Germany
12. Sergio Perez - 1:44.142 / Force India-Mercedes / Mexico
13. Romain Grosjean - 1:44.425 / Haas-Ferrari / France
14. Lance Stroll - 1:44.459 / Williams-Mercedes / Canada
15. Pierre Gasly - 1:44.712 / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / France
16. Charles Leclerc - 1:44.940 / Sauber-Ferrari / Monaco
17. Sergey Sirotkin - 1:45.007 / Williams-Mercedes / Russia
18. Brendon Hartley - 1:45.051 / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / New Zealand
19. Stoffel Vandoorne - 1:45.288 / McLaren-Renault / Belgium
20. Marcus Ericsson - 1:46.042 / Sauber-Ferrari / Sweden

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Article Written By: Bethonie Waring
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