"I stalled in first gear, what can I do?" asks Verstappen.

Nothing representative from either Ferrari man yet, and at the top of the timesheets Daniel Ricciardo has moved into first, 1:45.369 for him. Max Verstappen is second with Mercedes three and four.

But wait. Max Verstappen is in the wall! Smoke coming from both of his front tyres. He slides off the track at turn five, is facing the wrong way and looks to have done some damage to his Red Bull. Oh dear, oh dear.

Stoffel Vandoorne opts for the ultrasofts. Team-mate Fernando Alonso is eighth quickest so far.

Image source, McLaren

Max Verstappen, with finishes of six and fifth either side of a DNF in Bahrain, is still the fastest today and has gone even quicker thanks to a 1:46.267. Daniel Ricciardo second, with the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas third and fourth.

Early weekend optimism for Red Bull.

Image source, Getty Images

It may not be the start to the season Max Verstappen has been hoping for, but he has just jumped to the top of the timesheets on the yellow softs. His mark of 1:46.399 is 0.066 faster than Lewis Hamilton.

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

Max Verstappen has clearly got the pace and been quicker than Daniel Ricciardo most of the season. He has the pace but needs to cut out these mistakes.

In all three weekends there have been significant errors and he has lost a lot of points. As Red Bull have a car that can compete he needs to bring in more consistency into his racing.

Matthew McCaughan: Canada 2008. The first race that I attended. Hamilton crashing into Kimi in the pit lane and the only ever win for Sauber.

Matt Claypole: 1990 US Grand Prix. It was a race which looked set to be a borefest (what, with the track layout and all) and yet it gave us a brilliant race with Jean Alesi taking the fight to Senna from start to finish. That race is why Alesi will always be one of my favourites.

Image source, Getty Images

Not much in it between the two Mercedes men. Lewis Hamilton has set a 1:46.465, compared to a 1:46.539 from Valtteri Bottas.

Mercedes are having a private battle of their own at the moment, both on the red supersofts. Lewis Hamilton goes quicker than his team-mate with a 1:47.563.

Brendon Hartley is also out there, but lost his way, as he missed turn eight and has to go into the run-off area. No harm done though and he avoids any of the close walls, luckily.

Stewart: The greatest race was Canada 2011. It had everything on and off the track! The two hour long break was great fun. The BBC coverage that day was a masterclass in filling time and the whole show was fantastic!

The Tom: Either Spa 1991 for Andrea coming so close to getting Senna, Donington 93 for obvious reasons or Valencia 2012 because of Alonso putting on an overtaking masterclass.

Image source, Getty Images

Valtteri Bottas gives us an early marker of 1:49.762 and then shaves that down to 1:48.100. Only he and team-mate Lewis Hamilton have set times so far.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

One of the stand-out performers of the last 15 months or so has been Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, who has been out-qualified by a team-mate only once in the last 27 races.

The German is regarded as one of the most talented drivers on the grid but, with his aggressive style, sometimes struggled with tyre management in the years from 2011-16 when the Pirellis were especially delicate. But he has come into own since the introduction of more robust tyres last year.

“I think I’ve just managed to… yeah… to hit it on the head each time,” he said on Thursday. “I quite enjoy qualifying. I like getting out there where it counts and putting a lap together. I feel also the last 20 or so races I also had a car that allows me to do that and gives me the support that a driver needs.

"Since last year, with this generation of cars, when you have the downforce, you’ve got more grip to work with. It’s just been a bit more fun and probably helps the way I drive also, a little bit.” Last year, Hulkenberg was one of the drivers in with a chance of the win in the chaotic race in Baku only to wipe off a front wheel on a wall.

Team-mate Carlos Sainz has not been far off much of the time since joining Renault last autumn but admits he has been struggling with rear instability on corner entry, which he admits Hulkenberg (pictured below) is “dealing very well with it. He’s a super-experienced driver, super-talented. It's something that obviously must help for this.”

Image source, Getty Images

The ultrasofts are the early weapon of choice for the Ferrari lads.

Image source, Ferrari

This race is taking place a month and a half earlier in the year than it did in 2017, but it is still hot, hot, hot down at track level.

Image source, Formula 1

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Fernando Alonso insists he feels “positive” about McLaren’s start to the season - despite the car’s performance falling well short of the team’s own predictions - although he does admit that while the first three races had been “decent” they had “not (been) up to the position we wanted”.

One of the car’s failings this year has been its poor straight-line speed and Alonso said that the team would try some experiments aimed at fixing it. “It seems this year we still have quite a slow car on the straights but hopefully here we can improve that,” the Spaniard said.

“We have a different philosophy, a different test, to do on Friday to gain some extra speed and hopefully we can minimise that deficit. We've not been in Q3 so far this year and I think it's going to be difficult again, but hopefully we are a little bit closer.”

Of the removal of Tim Goss from his role as chief technical officer, revealed by BBC Sport on Thursday, Alonso said the drivers would support whatever decisions the management took to improve the team’s competitiveness.

Image source, Getty Images

We are under way in the opening practice session. It goes on for 90 minutes.

Jim Robb: French GP 1979. Villeneuve v Arnoux. Nuff said. Or 1968 German GP. Masterclass from Jackie Stewart, winning by over four minutes in fog and rain!

Akkrenskarin: Fave race ever was '97 German Grand Prix - massive Berger fan, and after everything that happened that year it was a totally dominant weekend and a wonderful finale to a great career.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

McLaren’s relative struggles this year have ensured that Williams’ arguably worse ones have not generated as much pressure on the team as they might otherwise have done. But there is no hiding the fact that they have taken a major step backwards.

The problem has been that a change of aerodynamic philosophy aimed at generating more downforce has predictably slowed the cars on the straights - where they were previously the strongest - but has not had the desired effect in the corners.

“Nobody was, of course, planning to completely flip this balance, but we wanted to move it to maybe a bit 50-50,” their novice driver Sergey Sirotkin (pictured) said. “I won't say that we were really planning to lose on the straights, but we knew ahead of time and were expecting that we wouldn't be the fastest. But of course in turn we expected to get something that we so far didn't get.”

As team-mate Lance Stroll put it, “We've lost a good chunk in our strong point and we haven't gained enough in our weak point. We don't have the handling benefits that we were looking for of the direction change that we made over the winter.” In that context, another difficult weekend is almost certainly looming.

Image source, Getty Images

This is how it stands in the constructors' championship after three races.

Image source, .

Can Daniel Ricciardo make it back-to-back wins at the Baku street circuit?

Or will Lewis Hamilton claim his first victory of the season and kick-start his title chase?

Choose your podium top three for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix here.

Image source, Getty Images