BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in the opening practice session at the new Baku City Circuit while Daniel Ricciardo took the dubious honour of being the first to collide with the track walls.
Turns 1, 3 and 15 proved to be the most challenging corners during the first session, with several drivers taking to the run off at all three corners. Hamilton made use of the run off area at Turn 3 twice and on the second occasion glanced the outside wall as he did so. The mistake flatspotted his set of super-soft tyres for the session, meaning he was unable to complete the long-run the team had planned and ended his session 20 minutes before the chequered flag
Despite his curtailed session, Hamilton still finished at the top of the timesheets, beating team-mate Nico Rosberg by 0.337s. Valtteri Bottas was third fastest, 0.661s off Hamilton's best effort, but opted not to use the super-soft tyres. The only teams to sample the softest rubber were Mercedes and Toro Rosso, meaning over 1.5s separated Hamilton in fourth and Fernando Alonso's best effort on the softs in fourth. Sebastian Vettel was a further 0.6s off the pace in fifth ahead of Sergio Perez, Jenson Button and the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz.
Ricciardo's accident red flagged the session with 23 minutes remaining on the clock. The Red Bull driver lost the rear of the car as he exited Turn 15 and clipped the unforgiving barrier on the outside. The impact ripped the right-rear tyre off the car and left Ricciardo marooned on the following straight. In order to remove the car, the session had to be stopped to allow a mobile crane to come onto the track and clear the wreckage. The incident left Ricciardo 13th in the standings, one place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari, but both will expect to be higher up the order in the competitive sessions later in the weekend. Max Verstappen completed just seven laps in the second Red Bull after an oil leak early in the session saw him return to the pits with smoke coming from the rear of his car.
Although Ricciardo's error was the most costly, he was not the only driver to make a mistake at Turn 15. Esteban Gutierrez and Daniil Kvyat, both explored the run-off area at the corner and Carlos Sainz damaged his front wing against the barrier after running deep into the corner. Vettel also had a bizarre half spin under acceleration coming out of Turn 16 early in the session.
The thrills and spills are likely to continue throughout the weekend, but the order of the cars is expected to become more familiar as teams refine setups based on the data gathered during Friday's practice sessions.