Daniel Ricciardo confirmed himself as the man to beat heading into the weekend after setting the quickest time in Practice 2 ahead of the Azerbaijan GP.
After only the use of Ultrasoft tyres helped Valtteri Bottas beat the Australian in the first session, in the second there was no stopping the Red Bull driving as he posted a 1m42.795s.
Kimi Raikkonen was only 0.065s behind in second for Ferrari, however, the Finn would benefit from a huge slipstream behind Lewis Hamilton along the 2.2km main straight, thus distorting his time.
In effect then, it was a Red Bull 1-2 as Max Verstappen, recovering from his crash in the morning, finished third just over a tenth behind his teammate, which should generate some confidence after a shaky start.
One of the key challenges teams are facing is optimising the tyre temperatures to extract more grip from the softer compounds and once again, Mercedes are struggling compared to their rivals with Bottas and Lewis Hamilton three-quarters of a second slower than Ricciardo in fourth and fifth respectively.
Another challenge was judging the braking zones as many drivers took the various escape roads, particularly at Turns 1, 2 and 3.
It was going straight on at Turn 15 which hurt Sebastian Vettel though, as the German would not complete a qualifying-style run in his Ferrari, ending a difficult day only 11th fastest.
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The midfield also remains somewhat jumbled with times largely impacted by whether the driver was given a tow down the main straight.
It would be Fernando Alonso in sixth for McLaren with Esteban Ocon continuing Force India’s strong pace in seventh.The Silverstone-based team is well-known for topping the speed traps and that will be particularly advantageous in Baku.
After a morning cut short by both drivers ruining their tyres with lock-ups, Renault had both Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg back in the top 10 in eighth and 10th. The Haas of Kevin Magnussen was the meat in the French sandwich in P9.
Down the order, Williams continued to show a little more competitiveness with Lance Stroll in 14th. On the contrary, Toro Rosso slipped back with Pierre Gasly one place behind the Canadian in 15th.
Charles Leclerc put his Sauber into 16th as teammate Marcus Ericsson missed out on much of the session with a gearbox problem.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
