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Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP

Azerbaijan GP Friday practice

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Vandoorne is the first man to grab a second set of tyres and head back out in FP1. He's currently bottom of the pile, having not set a representative time during the first 40 minutes of running.
'Where are the Ferraris?' we hear you ask. 16th and 17th for Raikkonen and Vettel, who have done seven laps each on ultrasofts and largely struggled with their rear tyres.
Top 10 so far in FP1: 1 Ricciardo, 2 Verstappen, 3 Hamilton, 4 Bottas, 5 Hulkenberg, 6 Stroll, 7 Grosjean, 8 Hartley, 9 Alonso, 10 Ocon.
That Red Bull wasn't easy to clear for the marshals, but it is finally behind the barriers and the track is clear again.
Vettel reports his "rears are like toast". It's been a tricky morning for tyre complaints up and down the pitlane, and plenty of that frustrated chatter has come from the Ferraris.
This VSC has come at the end of the 40-minute window for the first sets of tyres that teams have to give back, so it's effectively called to an end the first part of the session.
After plenty of radio chatter with Red Bull, none of the instructions Verstappen was given have allowed him to fire the car back up. He's getting out, and is now trying to help the marshals get it moved.
We have a virtual safety car, as Verstappen's shunted car is right in the firing line at Turn 6.
Replays confirm that's a crash for Verstappen. He lost the car on the brakes, then it slid back the other way and sent him into the barrier side-on.
"I stalled in first gear, what can I do?" says Verstappen.
Verstappen has come to a halt. He's up against the barrier...
Hulkenberg waited longer than most to set a time in this session, but he's up to fifth now in the Renault. Not the first time we've seen him as best of the rest.
Verstappen lowers the benchmark to a 1m45.5s, while Hamilton moves into second to split the Red Bulls.
Most of the radio traffic so far in this session has been about tyre temperatures. Plenty of drivers are struggling to get their tyres into the right operating window, so they are getting a lot of feedback from the pits on how much they are missing by.
"The rear looks a bit poor," says Vettel, who is discussing backing off with Ferrari.
Raikkonen is willing to take more kerb than anyone else through 12 and it seems to be working for him. Both Ferrari drivers are able to attack and rotate the rear properly on entry.
"The smell of the car here in the pitlane is horrendous," says Vandoorne, who is about to leave the garage.
Ricciardo makes it a Red Bull 1-2, 0.069s slower than Verstappen.
The Red Bulls look strong through Turn 12, not suffering any major balance problems and able to turn in pretty decisively and feed the power in with confidence. And I have to say the Force Indias look poor through here. Both drivers very messy.
Verstappen is told to watch his "crossover on the brakes". That's the crossover between the accelerator and brake pedals, which can cause havoc with engine settings on these high-tech cars. We have a little bit of personal experience of that, having managed to shut down a Formula E car during a track test last year with similar pedal behaviour! Oops.
Verstappen slots into third behind the Mercedes drivers. Perez, Stroll and Hartley are the only other drivers to have set a time so far.
Hamilton is sliding around much less than Bottas. While the grip level doesn’t look perfect, his tyre warm up approach seems better than that of Bottas, who can’t keep the rear doing what he wants. The Finn is only driver with the rear stepping out through 11, which it has the previous three laps.
The Mercedes drivers continue to improve as a handful of other cars come out. Hamilton remains fastest on a 1m46.4s.
"Remember weaving to heat tyres," Hartley is told.
Hartley rejoins after finding reverse, having gone straight on at the tricky, narrow Turn 8. It's the little uphill section that is a pretty famous part of this circuit.

By: Geoff Creighton

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