On a day when team-mate Max Verstappen crashed and Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes continued to struggle with tyre temperature issues, Daniel Ricciardo remained ‘hot’, the man in form. After winning the last race, in China, the Red Bull pilot set the fastest time in practice here in Baku. But it was a close-run thing, as Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari was only 0.069s slower.

In the first session, run in 22-degrees C, it was Ferrari who struggled, with Raikkonen and points leader Sebastian Vettel only 15th and 10th respectively, as Valtteri Bottas set the pace for Mercedes fractions ahead of Ricciardo, interloper Sergio Perez of Force India, and Hamilton. Vettel complained that his rear tyres were “like toast” as they lost grip quickly.

But as Ferrari found relative pace in the second session, held in cooler late-afternoon conditions, Mercedes lost some speed.

F1 2018 grid Show all 30 1 /30 F1 2018 grid F1 2018 grid Mercedes Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Lewis Hamilton Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Valtteri Bottas Getty F1 2018 grid Ferrari Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Sebastian Vettel Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Kimi Raikkonen Getty F1 2018 grid Red Bull Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Daniel Ricciardo Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Max Verstappen Getty F1 2018 grid Force India Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Sergio Perez Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Esteban Ocon Getty F1 2018 grid Williams Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Lance Stroll Getty F1 2018 grid In contention: Daniil Kvyat

Robert Kubica

Paul Di Resta Getty F1 2018 grid Toro Rosso Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Brendon Hartley Brendon Hartley Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Pierre Gasly Pierre Gasly Getty F1 2018 grid Renault Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Nico Hulkenberg Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Carlos Sainz Getty F1 2018 grid Haas Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Kevin Magnussen Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Romain Grosjean Getty F1 2018 grid McLaren Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Fernando Alonso Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Stoffel Vandoorne Getty F1 2018 grid Sauber Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Charles Leclerc Getty F1 2018 grid Confirmed: Marcus Ericsson Antonio Giovinazzi

Marcus Ericsson

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Ricciardo improved Bottas’ earlier time from 1m 44.242s to 1m 42.795s. But halfway through the 90 minutes, Raikkonen bounced Ferrari into strong contention with a lap of 1m 42.864s.

The last thing Verstappen really needed was another incident, but he got it wrong under braking for Turn 6 of this tricky street track not long after the first session had started, and damaged the left-hand side of his RB14 after getting it wrong under braking. He sat out the rest of the session and lost time in the second one, before eventually cutting down to 1m 42.011s to go third.

"It was a bit more windy, I lost the rear, spun, and of course hit the wall," he said. “It was a bit slippery at the start. I couldn't catch the car and hit the wall. You just have to feel your way into the track because it was very dusty and slippery, as I found out.

"Luckily it didn't affect us too much in the second practice, so I'm quite happy.”

Both Ricciardo and Verstappen expect Mercedes and Ferrari to be strong in qualifying, when they have more powerful engine modes than their Renault units.

"We look quick," the Dutchman said, “but we know that in qualifying they have this power mode, so they will be even closer. But we still have a bit as well, and this track is a lot about confidence, so if you really feel good in the car you can get a bit of lap time as well."

Max Verstappen knows Ferrari will be strong (Getty)

Having been within two-tenths of Ricciardo’s time on the supersoft-compound Pirelli tyres, while himself running the slower softs, Hamilton looked good initially before switching to the ultrasofts on which Ricciardo eventually set his best lap. On those he again struggled.

The previous day he had suggested that Mercedes had identified the cause of their problems in Shanghai as the way in which the W09 uses its tyres, and believed that they had come up with viable solutions.

"They're short-term things," he had said. "We've sat and understood where we've gone wrong but we're still implementing the changes because there could be five or 10 different solutions for that particular problem.

"Now I'm just hoping that we've implemented the right equation to get the right answer."

Daniel Ricciardo remains the man in form (Getty)

The jury was still out after the day’s practice was done. Bottas was fourth fastest, 0.775s off Ricciardo’s pace, Hamilton fifth, 0.808s off.

But he had just set the fastest sector on one lap when he locked his brakes and ran wide, and thereafter did not attempt another fast time as work switched to race simulations.

“It’s been a smooth day,” he said. “We got through everything we needed without many mistakes and we gathered lots of information.

“It started out quite warm but could down in the afternoon which made it interesting to try and understand the tyres in both conditions.

“Overall, we weren’t quick enough today, both Red Bull and Ferrari seem to be ahead of us at the moment, so we’ve got some work to do. I’m going to be knocking on the doors of all the engineers overnight, so that we can hopefully make the right changes.”

The extent of his struggles was indicated when Fernando Alonso placed his McLaren-Renault sixth, less than a tenth of a second behind the Mercedes. But there was some consolation for the world champion as title rival Sebastian Vettel also had a tough session in the second Ferrari.

Fernando Alonso in action (Getty)

He was only 11th fastest, 1.332s away from Ricciardo, after braking problems saw him taking to escape roads on more than one occasion as he tried to better his first-lap time on the softest compound tyres.

There is still time for Mercedes to get on top of their problem, with a final practice session tomorrow ahead of qualifying.

"We believe the car is not the biggest issue," Hamilton reiterated.

“That’s the tyres, which we're still learning about. One weekend we've got it, and the next weekend we haven't. I'm hoping that if we can really get on top of the tyre situation we'll be able to show the true performance of the car."

Lewis Hamilton has tyres on the brain (Getty)

Further challenges may lie ahead for the teams in the race, however.