Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Practice Recap

The fourth round of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship began with practice Friday at Baku City Circuit as teams prepared for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix Sunday.

Two 90-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – on the 6.003-kilometer (3.730-mile), 20-turn track were run under disparate conditions, with FP1 taking place amid sunshine while clouds moved in for FP2.

Grip was at a premium throughout FP1, with difficult track conditions conspiring to leave Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen 14th and 18th, respectively, at the end of the session.

Magnussen was the first Haas F1 Team driver out in FP1, followed shortly by Grosjean. Each driver was on the same program – an installation lap on Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft tires followed by a baseline stint on those same supersofts before switching to Purple ultrasoft tires. With ultrasofts outfitted on the Haas VF-18s, Grosjean and Magnussen each made two separate runs, both of which came on the same set of tires.

Grosjean logged 23 laps in FP1 with his best time coming on his final lap – a 1:46.856 that placed him 14th among the 20-strong field. Magnussen recorded 18 laps, with his best time being a 1:47.434 earned on his ninth lap that put him 18th overall. Both drivers earned their quick times shod on ultrasofts.

Leading the way in FP1 was Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas, whose fast lap of 1:44.242 was .035 of a second better than the next quickest driver, Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull.

Lap times dropped in FP2 as Haas F1 Team made incremental progress on an evolving racetrack with more rubber being laid down amid slightly cooler conditions. Grosjean continued to fight instability in his racecar while Magnussen sought overall improvement.

Magnussen wrapped FP2 as the ninth-quickest driver with a time of 1:43.977, which was 3.457 seconds better than his best lap in FP1. His quick time came on the 13th of his 29 laps riding on a set of ultrasoft tires. Grosjean shaved 2.431 seconds off his FP1 time with a lap of 1:44.425 to earn the 13th-fastest mark. His fast lap came on his 12th tour, also while utilizing ultrasofts. He completed 27 laps.

After finishing second in FP1, Ricciardo turned a lap of 1:42.795 to take the top spot in FP2, besting his nearest pursuer, Scuderia Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen, by just .069 of a second. The Baku track record of 1:40.593, set last year by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in the final round of qualifying, remained intact.

Between the two sessions, Haas F1 Team ran a total of 97 laps – 50 by Grosjean and 47 by Magnussen.