2018 F1 Azerbaijan GP FP1 — Bottas leads, Ricciardo close behind

The fourth round of the 2018 Formula 1 season, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, began at the Baku City Circuit on 27 April. Its combination of a narrow castle section, long straights and slow hairpins required teams to balance straight-line speed with stability under heavy braking. First practice was initially used to establish a baseline street-circuit set-up.

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was fastest with a 1:44.242, just 0.035 seconds ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in second. The pair opened a gap to the rest of the field from the start, with both Red Bull and Mercedes showing good single-lap speed on low-drag set-ups.

Force India’s Sergio Pérez was third and Esteban Ocon fifth, either side of fourth-placed Lewis Hamilton. Both cars ran steadily on the narrow streets, showing good adaptation to the kerbs beside Baku’s walls and the heavy braking zones at the ends of its long straights. The team also gathered a fairly complete set of FP1 data.

Max Verstappen was sixth, Fernando Alonso seventh and Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin eighth. Pierre Gasly was ninth and Sebastian Vettel tenth. Both Ferraris were outside the top six, with Kimi Räikkönen down in 15th. The opening session showed that teams were still exploring street-circuit grip and the tyres’ operating window.

Brendon Hartley completed the most laps in the session with 32. Ocon ran 29, while Bottas and Pérez completed 26 each. Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz managed only 11 laps apiece, as did Verstappen. The lower lap totals of some drivers meant they still had track data to gather later.

Only 35 milliseconds separated Bottas and Ricciardo, whose pace stood out at the front for the time being. Ferrari’s soft-tyre performance-run programme differed in FP1. As more rubber was laid down and temperatures changed, Friday afternoon’s results could look significantly different from this order.

FP1 left the competitive picture for the weekend open while showing midfield teams opportunities to fight for the top ten. Pérez and Ocon both reached the top five, and Alonso was also inside the top ten. With almost no margin for error at the track’s edges, drivers had to balance running boldly close to the walls with avoiding contact.

Formula 1’s official FP1 results list the fastest laps and completed laps of all 20 drivers. Bottas led with a 1:44.242, Ricciardo was 0.035 seconds behind, Pérez third and Hamilton fourth. Second practice would test these drivers’ long-run pace and the stability of their cars.