Lewis Hamilton was the fastest driver in first practice for the European Grand Prix in Azerbaijan as Mercedes once again showed their strong pace early on.
The Mercedes driver lapped the Baku City circuit in 1 minute 46.435 seconds, just under four tenths of a second faster than team mate Nico Rosberg who finished the session in second.
The circuit's high speed nature was expected to favour the Mercedes-powered cars and the top three reflected that with Williams' Valtteri Bottas in third.
Fernando Alonso was a surprise fourth, lapping over a second and a half off the pace setting time while Sebastian Vettel completed the top five in a session which saw many drivers try to find the limits of Formula One's newest track.
There was one red flag in the session, with Daniel Ricciardo hitting the wall hard at turn 15.
It turned out to be a difficult practice for Red Bull, with Ricciardo's team mate Max Verstappen sidelined for much of the 90 minute session with clutch issues.
"Max looks like a clutch issue so we're changing the clutch. We want it done properly for session two," team principal Christian Horner told the BBC. "You saw what happened with Daniel, it will be a rush to turn the car around for session two. For all the teams it is stretching the spare part with the three street tracks in succession."
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Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
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I hardly think this is representative, I dont expect McLaren to score points on this track, unless people retire.