Five things we learned on Friday in Azerbaijan

Fridays in Formula 1’s fledgeling 2018 season have been excellent teaser trailers for the entertaining weekend that follows. The first practice sessions in Azerbaijan appear to have continued the trend, this time teeing up an Infinity War to come between Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, in which the reigning world champions are the underdogs.

Valtteri Bottas may have headed the timesheet in the first practice session, but it was Daniel Ricciardo’s head-turning 1m42.795s lap which is the main headline – a time posted on the third lap of his qualifying simulation ultrasoft run.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen may have finished only a slender 0.069s behind Ricciardo’s benchmark, but that was with the aid of a tow no doubt begrudgingly provided by Lewis Hamilton along Baku’s distinctively long pit-straight.

Max Verstappen recovered from a trip to the barriers in FP1 to finish third on the timesheet in the afternoon, just over one-tenth behind his team-mate despite the lost mileage in the morning.

Mercedes was comparatively at sea. Bottas was yet again narrowly faster than Hamilton, but even he was 0.775s off the pace. When the Silver Arrows headed out to evaluate long-run performance, Mercedes’ day proceeded to get even worse.

Here are five things we learned on Friday in Azerbaijan.