Practice analysis: Red Bull in a league of their own, more headaches for Mercedes

The timesheets in the second practice session ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix produced an eye-opening result. In similar style to practice in Monaco, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas failed to trouble the top of the timesheets. Meanwhile, their rivals Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen locked-out the top two places. And Ferrari are yet again adding themselves into the mix. 

The difference between Mercedes and Red Bull is remarkable around the Baku street circuit in terms of one lap pace. Red Bull are in a league of their own. And not just by looking at the pecking order. A full second seperates Hamilton from the Perez's quickest time of the session. Bottas sits a further one second behind his British teammate. 

Antonio Giovinazzi and Yuki Tsunoda both sit ahead of the Mercedes drivers. And yet again, Ferrari find themselves in the top four places on the timesheets. The Mercedes team have some work to do if they want to fight their world championship rivals in Saturday's qualifying session. 

What's causing Mercedes problems?

Monaco's slow speed corners didn't favour the Mercedes car. This gave Ferrari and Red Bull an advantage. Whilst the Baku circuit is also a street circuit, it's a completelty different beast. 

The track plays host to a number of slow corners, including the famous castle section during the middle part of the lap. But, the circuit has the longest straight on the Formula 1 calendar. Something that usually benefits the Mercedes car because of their power unit performance.

Neither Bottas or Hamilton set any fastest sector times. As expected, Hamilton lost the bulk of his time in sector two which features most of the slow corners. The seven-time World Champion lost 0.427 seconds in this sector, compared to the current World Championship leader. Meanwhile, Bottas lost almost a second in this sector alone. 

It's clear that Mercedes haven't solved any of their slow corner problems. Hardly surprsing given they've only had two weeks following the Monaco Grand Prix. In the final sector where the long straight plays it's strongest role, Hamilton and Verstappen were roughly equal. Giovinazzi recorded the fastest sector three time, but this was aided by a strong tow. 

Long run pace

The qualifying simulations will provide Mercedes with headaches. They are losing time in the slow corners, and failing to gain anything to Red Bull during the flat-out sector. The data suggests Red Bull have once again managed to get the best out of their cars and are in a league of their own for Saturday's qualifying session. 

Mercedes' long run pace is slightly better, but not as good as Red Bulls. As Christian Horner alluded to, Red Bull aren't in a league of their own in this department but do look stronger than Mercedes.