Baku, FP2: Ricciardo moves to the front

Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo went quickest in the second practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, edging Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen by 0.069s.

Last year’s winner at the Baku City Circuit, Ricciardo was straight into the groove in the late afternoon session claiming top spot 10 minutes into the 90-minute practice period.

Ricciardo worked his way up to a best early supersoft of time of 1:43.512s and before the field began to move to ultrasoft-shod qualifying runs as the session approached the half-way mark.

The Australian again established himself as the pacesetter on the purple-banded Pirelli tyres, setting a best time of 1:42.795s. The laps put him well ahead of the chasing pack until Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen put in a good run to close to within seven hundredths of a second of the Red Bull driver. The Finn’s team-mate and championship leader Sebastian Vettel had a tricky session, finishing 11th and 1.332s off the pace.

Max Verstappen, whose early preparations for the race were set back by crash in the first session, recovered well in the second session, working his way down to a best time of 1:42.911, just over a tenth behind his Red Bull team-mate. The Dutchman’s session wasn’t without nervous moments, however. On his first run he was forced to use the escape road at Turn 3 and later on survived a brush with the wall.

FP1’s fastest man, Valtteri Bottas, slipped to fourth place in the second session, finishing just under eight tenths of a second behind Ricciardo. The Finn was followed by Lewis Hamilton, who finished 0.083 behind his Mercedes team-mate.

Sixth place in the session went to McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, with the Spaniard moving a place ahead of his FP1 finishing position. team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne had a less successful outing, complaining of traffic on his qualifying simulation. The Belgian thus finished in 19th place just ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson who suffered a gearbox problem early in the session

Esteban Ocon continued Force India’s solid start to the weekend by claiming seventh place with a best lap of 1:43.814 that left him 1.019 adrift of Ricciardo’s pace but three tenths clear of 12th-placed team-mate Sergio Pérez.

Renault’s Carlos Sainz was eighth ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, while Nico Hulkenberg was 10th fastest in the second Renault following a plank change early on.