Daniel Ricciardo narrowly beat Kimi Raikkonen to the fastest time in the second practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver’s best effort was a 1’42.795 which he set on ultra-soft tyres. He took a few laps to set the time, his tyres giving up more grip in his qualifying simulation run on a comparatively cool track where temperatures fell to 26C.
Raikkonen got within a tenth of a second of Ricciardo’s time. But his Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel ended up 11th-quickest after a trip down one of the escape roads at the track.Max Verstappen recovered from his crash in first practice to set the third-quickest time, just over a tenth of a second behind his team mate. However he suffered another setback in the final minutes, cruising into the pits with an apparent technical problem on his RB14.
There was little to choose between the Mercedes pair though the silver cars lagged some way off the pace. Valtteri Bottas was over three-quarters of a second off Ricciardo’s benchmark time.
Lewis Hamilton, fifth, was only a tenth of a second ahead of Fernando Alonso’s McLaren, which led a closely-matched and varied midfield. The rest of the top 10 included Esteban Ocon’s Force India, Kevin Magnussen’s Haas and both the Renaults. Carlos Sainz Jnr was the quicker of the latter pair, enjoying a better session having been slowest in the first 90 minutes of running.
Despite complaining about the balance of his car Lance Stroll set the 14th-quickest time for Williams, putting them ahead of Toro Rosso and Sauber.
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Second practice visual gaps
Daniel Ricciardo – 1’42.795
+0.069 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’42.864
+0.116 Max Verstappen – 1’42.911
+0.775 Valtteri Bottas – 1’43.570
+0.808 Lewis Hamilton – 1’43.603
+0.905 Fernando Alonso – 1’43.700
+1.019 Esteban Ocon – 1’43.814
+1.039 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’43.834
+1.182 Kevin Magnussen – 1’43.977
+1.296 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’44.091
+1.332 Sebastian Vettel – 1’44.127
+1.347 Sergio Perez – 1’44.142
+1.630 Romain Grosjean – 1’44.425
+1.664 Lance Stroll – 1’44.459
+1.917 Pierre Gasly – 1’44.712
+2.145 Charles Leclerc – 1’44.940
+2.212 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’45.007
+2.256 Brendon Hartley – 1’45.051
+2.493 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’45.288
+3.247 Marcus Ericsson – 1’46.042
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
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Joao (@johnmilk)
27th April 2018, 15:47
Is McLaren low drag update (can I call it that?) only on Alonso’s car? Vandoorne has been quite off the pace.
This is supposed to be a Mercedes circuit, are they struggling with anything specific?
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
27th April 2018, 15:49
I thought Vandoorne WAS the low drag update on Alonso’s car?
Joao (@johnmilk)
27th April 2018, 16:02
that was my initial thought too when they said they had a revolutionary solution.
Wearing Kimoa sunglasses isn’t enough? Poor kid
GechiChan (@gechichan)
27th April 2018, 16:20
@mrboerns & @johnmilk – Top comments, made me laugh!
rpiian (@rpiian)
27th April 2018, 17:29
Zing!
Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
27th April 2018, 15:53
Considering Bottas topped FP1, I don’t think they are struggling with anything. They must be running on a higher fuel load or derping around on slower tyres (didn’t get a chance to watch – someone confirm the compounds they used!)
CrazyforSpeed
27th April 2018, 16:07
Bottas SS US US US
Hamilton S US
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lee1
27th April 2018, 16:19
That was what I was thinking. Alonso is in the top 10 for speed trap speeds and vandorne seems to be a lot slower around the track (although I can only find the top 10 speed trap speeds)
It would make sense as they might not have had time to make parts for both cars.
bobec
27th April 2018, 16:34
I recall Alonso was always the first driver to get the newest updates and several times in 2015 his car was the only one that had them during the race.
George
27th April 2018, 16:43
I don’t know what’s the current situation, but they often try things on one car, and keep the other car as a benchmark. I guess Vandoorne, who was on Supersofts compared to Ultrasofts on Alo’s car could’ve been another reason…
Todfod (@todfod)
27th April 2018, 17:17
@johnmilk
Seems like some teams split fp2 in to quali runs for a particular driver and only race pace runs for the other driver. It looks like Ferrari, Mercedes and Mclaren put kimi, Fernando and Valterri on quali runs. At least that’s what it seems like from the lap times.
I wouldn’t read much in to the deficit between Alonso and Vandoorne or Vettel and raikonnen for now. It does look like Red bull and Ferrari are quicker though.
Todfod (@todfod)
27th April 2018, 17:21
@johnmilk
Sorry. Ignore Mercedes putting Valterri on only quali. I’m confused between fp1 and fp2 timings. It’s been a long day 😐.
Joao (@johnmilk)
27th April 2018, 17:33
@todfod it could be, but at least with Vettel, he made a mistake on his quali run
Lets see the difference between the mclarens after fp3
sethje (@seth-space)
27th April 2018, 19:31
McLaren’s update is “sacking someone”.. that should solve all problems.
Tim Goss left the building…
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
27th April 2018, 15:53
7-16 under half a second in FP1 was crazy but close front runner is something else.
Martin (@ardy)
27th April 2018, 16:20
I noticed that the top four drivers all had a double letter in their names.
Unfortunately, No’s 9, 11, 14, 19, and 20 also had double letters in their names.
Bang goes a theory I was formulating.
Chaitanya
27th April 2018, 16:44
Alonso got slipstream off of a Renault car(probably Sainz) and that’s what brought him to 6th place. Due to long section after turn 15 slipstream seems to help a lot in improving lap times.
kpcart
27th April 2018, 17:03
Mercedes again struggling with ultra soft over 1 lap, burning it up after 1 sector.
Tim
27th April 2018, 18:04
Based on what ? Hamilton was only a little off the best sector time in sector 3 on his best lap (0.05) with the engine turned up he’d likely have set the fastest final sector on his hot lap.If anything it seemed the Mercedes was taking a few laps to get them working.
rpiian (@rpiian)
27th April 2018, 17:28
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Patrick (@anunaki)
27th April 2018, 17:46
Nice recovery from Max, hopefully the engine issue is not too bad
sethje (@seth-space)
27th April 2018, 19:32
The most recent news it was only a malfunctioning sensor.
The low revs was a precaution.
Patrick (@anunaki)
27th April 2018, 19:35
Thanks for the info
I have a feeling Max will get his 1st pole tomorrow
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
28th April 2018, 0:08
@anunaki rose coloured glasses much?
Todfod (@todfod)
28th April 2018, 6:18
@anunaki
I’m guessing he’ll take the win, but will probably start in P2 or p3
Sumedh
27th April 2018, 18:04
Imagine if McLaren were still powered by Honda and had low top speeds and were forced to give their drivers a tow; everyone would have put the blame squarely on Honda, the fans, media, McLaren themselves. Being the only team with Honda, there was no other data pint to compare.
It was so easy then to blame Honda for everything.
sethje (@seth-space)
27th April 2018, 19:33
they blame Tim Goss now.
bennie johnston
27th April 2018, 19:58
Watching it today Alonso got a massive boost by being in the slipstream of a Merc down the home straight. Commentary said that was worth about half a second.
Sanguine
27th April 2018, 20:55
So did Ric and Kimi. If I recall correctly.
Islander
27th April 2018, 22:03
I didn’t get to see all of Raikkonen’s lap, but was he held up by HAM in sector 3? Anyone watch all fp2?