Verstappen frustration bookends fine Friday for Red Bull and Ricciardo

Red Bull had a somewhat bittersweet Friday practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, displaying great pace for both Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, but seeing the Dutchman suffer issues in both sessions. Ricciardo was quickest of all on Friday, with Mercedes again struggling for race pace and Sebastian Vettel also below-par.

Red Bull looking strong in Baku ????

Your full classification after FP2 ????#F1 #AzerbaijanGP ???????? pic.twitter.com/L64W0vlASB — Formula 1 (@F1) April 27, 2018

CAN ANYONE RUN WITH THE BULLS?

Although Kimi Raikkonen was in close quarters to Ricciardo in FP2's qualifying sims, it's notable to see the Renault-powered front-runners among the quickest in one-lap performance on a track that is so power-hungry.

Verstappen's Friday performance was impressive given he crashed early in FP1, denying him a big chunk of running time. The Dutchman was within a tenth of Ricciardo's headline time and delivered the best long-run pace of all.

Perhaps concerning for the Dutchman, however, was the very end of Friday's second session, which featured him limping back to the pits with instructions to limit the revs on his engine.

Team principal Christian Horner suggested, perhaps more in hope than expectation, that the issue could have been caused by an electronic sensor, rather than something that could prompt a costly change of parts.

He was sixth-fastest in Friday's first practice session

But Max Verstappen's weekend got off to a less-than-perfect start ????#F1 #AzerbaijanGP ???????? pic.twitter.com/Mlf80l9Y4H — Formula 1 (@F1) April 27, 2018

CONCERNS FOR THE BIG GUNS

Vettel and Hamilton came to on-track blows here last season, but were relegated to also-rans on Friday, with the reigning champion once again slower than Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton was fifth-quickest, eight tenths down on Ricciardo's best time and the Mercedes pair were over a second down on the top long-run averages, giving them another headache and chipping away at their dominance.

Silver Arrows chief Toto Wolff bailed out of post-FP2 television duties as an immediate inquest was launched, but they may take heart in seeing standings leader Sebastian Vettel also struggle.

Vettel was notably trying two warm-up laps before trying his qualifying sims, but was unable to put together a strong lap, locking up and taking to the run-off areas on numerous occasions.

Vettel has often been outperformed by Raikkonen in practice before finally hooking it all up at the last in qualifying and the German will once more need to improve through Saturday to contend for pole.

FEEL THE FORCE

Sergio Perez took a surprise podium for Force India when Baku first hosted Formula 1 in 2016, and the team clearly like this track, with Esteban Ocon managing to place seventh on Friday.

The pink cars have only managed a solitary point between them so far this season but, with Perez half a tenth off the top 10, they could be on for a haul come Sunday.

Fernando Alonso just pipped Ocon for McLaren to take 'best of the rest' honours. The performances of McLaren and Red Bull may point to an upgrade from Renault bearing fruit and the works team also got both cars in the top 10 on Friday.