Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo led the way during an intriguing second practice session for Formula 1's Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Friday afternoon.
Ricciardo held an advantage on the Supersoft runs before improving across a sequence of laps on Ultrasofts, with the rubber remaining grippy enough for two or three hot laps in one stint.
Ricciardo’s initially eye-catching advantage on Supersofts was whittled down on Ultrasofts and he wound up just 0.069s clear of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
In full: Azerbaijan GP FP2 results
Raikkonen, though, received a handy slipstream from Ricciardo on the long run to the start/finish line, leaving him able to split the Red Bull drivers.
Max Verstappen missed the opening 20 minutes of running as Red Bull finished the repairs on his RB14 following his FP1 crash and remained on the edge upon returning to the track.
Verstappen went wide on his first Supersoft run and clipped the wall exiting Turn 7 on his Ultrasoft effort – though still placed third, just 0.116s behind team-mate Ricciardo.
Verstappen crawled back to the pits in the closing minutes with an ill-sounding engine, and was told by his engineer to keep revs below 10,500.
Mercedes’ struggles on the Ultrasoft tyres continued, with Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton fourth and fifth, over seven-tenths behind Ricciardo.
Hamilton, though, had set the quickest first sector time of all before a lock-up into Turn 7 compromised his lap, and he abandoned his effort.
Championship leader Sebastian Vettel had a scruffy session, finding the escape road on three separate occasions as he finished down in 11th position, 1.3s behind Ricciardo.
Fernando Alonso finished just a tenth of a second behind Hamilton in sixth, as he in turn headed a group of closely-contested drivers from different teams.
Force India’s Esteban Ocon was seventh, ahead of Renault’s Carlos Sainz Jr. and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, again indicating that the midfield scrap will again be a close affair.
Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10, having missed some track time while Renault assessed the floor of his R.S.18, while Sergio Perez finished in 12th, behind the aforementioned Vettel.
Romain Grosjean finished 13th while Lance Stroll complained that his Williams FW41 was “undriveable” as he took 14th – the position in which he has finished all 2018 races so far.
Pierre Gasly was next up for Toro Rosso, in front of Sauber’s Charles Leclerc, Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin – who was unable to build on his FP1 pace – and Brendon Hartley.
Stoffel Vandoorne had another difficult session as he languished down in 19th spot, with Marcus Ericsson substantially off the pace for Sauber, amid technical difficulties.
Saturday's third practice session will begin at 14:00 local time.
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