Daniel Ricciardo Tops Baku FP2

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo continued his good form in Azerbaijan as he topped FP2. The Chinese GP winner was 0.069 seconds ahead of Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen.

Meanwhile, for reigning champion Lewis Hamilton, It was another frustrating outing.  On the plus side, fellow four-time World champion Sebastian Vettel fared no better.

Hamilton could only muster fifth fastest, 0.828secs behind Ricciardo. To make matters worse, he was a place lower than team-mate and FP1 leader Valtteri Bottas.

If you thought that Hamilton had a bad day in the office, you should check out the Vettel camp. The championship leader had an even worse day languishing in 11th place, 1.3 seconds off the pace with his Ferrari struggling at times to keep on the track.

However, the German refused to blame his tools and admitted that most of the problems was the result of poor driving rather than a car issue.

He said: “This place is a little tricky to find the rhythm. This morning I didn’t find it, the beginning of the second session I wasn’t up to speed but I was pretty happy with the long run at the end. 

“So I think it’s OK. It is all in me – the car is fine. I didn’t get the laps together.”

But, it soon became clear that Lady Luck had abandoned Max Verstappen this weekend as well, so far. The Dutchman made crucial mistakes in all three races so far this season. Today was no different as he spun off and hit a wall in first practice. In practice 2, he managed to keep a clean nose and recovered well in the afternoon. He ended up 0.116secs behind the leader in third place after second practice.

McLaren’s early season improvements and their 2018 revival continued with Fernando Alonso finishing an encouraging sixth fastest, with a time of 1min 43.7secs.