European GP: Hamilton tops incident-filled first-ever Baku practice

Hamilton's best of 1m46.436s - set with supersoft tyres - was nearly four tenths quicker than teammate Nico Rosberg.

The world champion, who had not seen the track until today, had an early finish to his session, however, after flat-spotting his tyres during a longer run late on.

The dusty circuit, combined with how tight the track is at places, meant several incidents were seen during the 90 minutes of running.

The most significant was by Daniel Ricciardo, who caused the session to be red-flagged after crashing against the wall at Turn 15.

It was a poor day for Red Bull, as Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen managed just seven laps before an oil leak stopped him.

Williams' Valtteri was third for Williams, ahead of the McLaren of Fernando Alonso, neither men trying the supersofts.

Sebastian Vettel completed the top five in the quicker Ferrari, also using soft tyres.

Esteban Gutierrez had the honour of being the first F1 driver to take to the track, while Rosberg was the first man to complete a timed lap: a 1m57.306s seven minutes into the session.

Rosberg lowered the benchmark to a 1n50.100s as the laps went by, as teammate Hamilton and moments later Bottas joined him in the timesheet.

Although it is a new track, the action at the start was scarce, as teams waited for their rivals to clean up a very dirty circuit.

Despite not having seen the track before the weekend, Hamilton moved to the top before the 20-minute mark after just seven tours, the Briton the first to dip into the 1:49s.

He improved to a 1m48.214s before the first half hour, as Gutierrez became the first victim of the tricky Turn 15, the Haas driver going straight and having to reverse twice before he managed to rejoin the track.

There was further drama seconds later when Vettel spun his Ferrari at Turn 18.

Daniil Kvyat also went off at Turn 15, but the Russian quickly spun his Toro Rosso around and rejoined the action.

Meanwhile, Verstappen was forced to return to the pits with smoke coming off the back of his Red Bull. The problem was originally found to be an oil leak, albeit Christian Horner confirmed after the session that it was, in fact, a clutch issue.

Bottas went quickest with 57 minutes to go with a 1m47.707s, outpacing Hamilton by half a second using the soft tyres, the Williams driver also becoming the first man to break the 350km/h barrier on the main straight.

The Mercedes duo were the first to run with the supersoft tyres, a few minutes ahead of the halfway point. With it, Hamilton moved to the top with a 1m46.489s, three tenths quicker than Rosberg.

Hamilton made a slight improvement moments later, before going straight at Turn 3, having to reverse to rejoin the track.

A few minutes after that, he repeated the error, this time at Turn 1, before going off again at Turn 3 after making light contact with the wall.

That incident resulted in a big flat spot on his tyre, and with it the end of his running.

But it was Ricciardo who caused the first-ever red flag after hitting the wall quite hard at the exit of Turn 15. The right side of his Red Bull was heavily damaged and the Australian's session was over.

When the session restarted, it was Sainz who went off at Turn 15, the Spaniard hitting the wall slowly, but enough to damage his front wing.

Free practice 3 results

Pos	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	23	1'46.435
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	32	1'46.812	0.377	0.377
3	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	34	1'47.096	0.661	0.284
4	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	21	1'47.989	1.554	0.893
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	26	1'48.627	2.192	0.638
6	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	17	1'48.922	2.487	0.295
7	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	21	1'49.019	2.584	0.097
8	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	22	1'49.125	2.690	0.106
9	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	16	1'49.267	2.832	0.142
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	27	1'49.301	2.866	0.034
11	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	20	1'49.611	3.176	0.310
12	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	16	1'49.635	3.200	0.024
13	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	17	1'49.778	3.343	0.143
14	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	Ferrari	25	1'50.167	3.732	0.389
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	18	1'50.473	4.038	0.306
16	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	7	1'50.485	4.050	0.012
17	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	19	1'50.551	4.116	0.066
18	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	25	1'50.910	4.475	0.359
19	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	Renault	27	1'50.939	4.504	0.029
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	Mercedes	24	1'51.219	4.784	0.280
21	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	11	1'51.771	5.336	0.552
22	Rio Haryanto	Manor	Mercedes	28	1'51.925	5.490	0.154