Ricciardo sets Friday pace at Baku

F1 Grand Prix, GP Azerbaijan, Baku Street Circuit

Chinese Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo set the Friday pace at Baku by going fastest in the practice 2 in the streets of Baku. The Australian was narrowly faster than Kimi Raikkonen with Max Verstappen closely following up in third.

Having narrowly trailed Valtteri Bottas in FP1, using the super soft tyres, Ricciardo this time around ran some laps on the ultra soft to demonstrate the true pace that Red Bull have in hand this weekend. Team mate Max Verstappen backed him up in third, underlining that Red Bull Racing will likely by strong this weekend.

Once again, Lewis Hamilton was quite a bit down on the pace setter, failing to set a flyer early on in the session. Focusing on longer runs after that, Bottas ended up ahead of him, although not by a big margin.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was even worse off, down in 11th. The German continued to struggle with rear end grip, and despite totalling 38 laps didn't appear to have found comfortable settings for him by the end of the 90 minute session. As in previous races however, Raikkonen has usually emerged ahead on Friday, only to see Vettel get the better of him when qualifying comes.

With Vettel out of position, Fernando Alonso led the midfield pack in 6th, ahead of Ocon, Sainz, Magnussen and Hulkenberg. Sergio Perez followed up in 12th as Force India slipped down the ranking order a bit compared to FP1.

At the back, it's again Stoffel Vandoorne, who is 19th, just like in the first session. It's hardly encouraging for the Belgian, as he ended up slower than Stroll, who dubbed his car undriveable, and ahead only of Marcus Ericsson, whose Sauber Ferrari encountered a gearbox issue after jut 8 laps.