Mercedes-powered cars at the front in first Azerbaijan F1 Grand Prix Practice with Bottas first, Hamilton fourth

Valtteri Bottas was quickest in the first practice session of the Azerbaijan Formula 1 Grand Prix ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, with Lewis Hamilton fourth.

Ricciardo’s Red Bull counterpart Max Verstappen spun out at Turn 6, ending his session early from a provisional second place, and bringing out a virtual safety car with just over 40 minutes remaining.

Sergio Pérez took third late in the session with a time of 1min 45.075sec, leaving Hamilton just over a tenth of a second behind, and eight tenths off the overall pace. Force India team-mate Esteban Ocon finished fifth ahead of Verstappen.

Mercedes set the early pace, though Ricciardo briefly led halfway through the session before Verstappen’s spin. Bottas later hit back to set the fastest time of 1min 44.242sec with around 20 minutes remaining.

Fernando Alonso, who was 17^th in FP1 last year, finished seventh in the session ahead of Williams rookie Sergey Sirotkin. Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly finished ninth, just faster than Sebastian Vettel who rounded out the top 10.

Ferrari struggled throughout the session on a green surface with Kimi Räikkönen 15^th. He stopped late in the session with an unidentified issue.

The other Ferrari-powered cars didn’t fare much better, with Haas pair Romain Grosjean in 14^th and Kevin Magnussen 18^th.

Sauber’s Charles Leclerc finished 16^th, a place ahead of team-mate Marcus Ericsson.

Stoffel Vandoorne and Carlos Sainz Jr rounded out the standings.

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Azerbaijan Formula 1 Grand Prix FP1 results

1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1min 44.242sec
2	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1min 44.277sec	+0.035sec
3	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1min 45.075sec	+0.833sec
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1min 45.200sec	+0.958sec
5	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1min 45.237sec	+0.995sec
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1min 45.559sec	+1.317sec
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1min 46.465sec	+2.223sec
8	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1min 46.480sec	+2.238sec
9	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1min 46.492sec	+2.250sec
10	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1min 46.513sec	+2.271sec
11	Lance Stroll	Williams	1min 46.590sec	+2.348sec
12	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1min 46.747sec	+2.505sec
13	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1min 46.749sec	+2.507sec
14	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1min 46.856sec	+2.614sec
15	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1min 46.861sec	+2.619sec
16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1min 46.875sec	+2.633sec
17	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1min 47.073sec	+2.831sec
18	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1min 47.434sec	+3.192sec
19	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1min 47.967secsec	+3.725sec
20	Carlos Sainz Jr	Toro Rosso	1min 48.741sec	+4.499sec

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