F1: Hamilton grabs hold of Baku's tricky track

British driver Lewis Hamilton steers his Mercedes at the Baku City Circuit to top both practice sessions on Friday.

Lewis Hamilton topped the times ahead of Mercedes team-mate and championship leader Nico Rosberg in both of Friday's incident-packed practice sessions for this weekend's European Grand Prix which is making its debut in Baku.
The defending world champion made light of the difficulties faced in learning a new street track, but was one of a long list of drivers who went off the circuit and brushed the barriers on a day of accidents, incidents and car failures.
Many of the problems were caused by the track's tricky design and lack of run-off space, but others were due to loose kerbs, most of which had to be refixed between sessions on a warm and overcast afternoon.
The track, described as dangerous in places by many drivers, including 2009 champion Jenson Button of McLaren and Rosberg, claimed many victims who struggled with the dusty surface and tight turns lacking broad run-off spaces.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo provided the most spectacular incident of the day when he crashed at Turn 15 in the opening session, which was red-flagged to clear the track. His Red Bull was repaired and he rejoined in the second practice.
The second session ended with Hamilton, who has trimmed Rosberg's lead in the title race from 43 points to nine in the last month, fastest in one minute and 44.223 seconds, ahead of Rosberg by seven-tenths of a second. Third was Mexican Sergio Perez of Force India.
Finn Valtteri Bottas was fourth for Williams ahead of German Nico Hulkenberg in the second Force India.
Sebastian Vettel just made the top 10, the four-time champion ending his day cruising back to the pits slowly as the Ferrari team diagnosed mechanical problems for both of their cars.
Earlier Hamilton lapped the fastest in the first practice session.
The Mercedes driver, who said on Thursday that he had no intention of inspecting the track beforehand because he wanted it to be a completely fresh experience in the car, lapped in a best time of one minute 46.435 seconds.
Sunday's race is billed as the European Grand Prix, a designation that has previously been given to circuits in Germany, Britain and Spain rather than a country at the crossroads of Asia and Europe.
Championship leader Rosberg was the first to set a timed lap of the 6.003km anti-clockwise track, which winds around the medieval walled city before a long blast along the Caspian Seafront.
Mexican Esteban Gutierrez, in a Haas, was first to leave the pit lane and also first to leave the track when he made a mistake at turn 15.