Mercedes 1-2 in 2nd Russian GP practice

Hamilton and his slave driver teammate Bottas 1-2

As expected the Aldo Costa designed Mercedes cars were sandbagging in the first practice, and in the 2nd practice for the Russian GP at Sochi they began to flex their muscle and they still are not trying hard.

Lewis Hamilton turned the fastest lap at 1m33.385s – 2/10ths faster than his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

The 2nd row was the Red Bull Row, with Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo in third and fourth.

The third row was the Ferrari row with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in 5th and 6th.

So with Friday practice done and literally dusted. Vettel might have topped FP1, but once Mercedes actually ran the hypersoft rubber, they seem to have a clear advantage at a track they always go well at.

Vettel ended up some half a second off Hamilton’s pace, and that will be a worry for the Scuderia, with the German seeking to eat into what has in the last few races grown to a 40-point deficit to the Silver Arrows pilot in the title race. Vettel was also seen to spin at the tricky Turn 13 late in the session to compound the pain, later ominously stating that "We looked quite far away from the rest of the field…"

In what was a largely incident-lite session, Sergio Perez proved once again the strength of Force India’s package, winding up P7. But the midfield team who really impressed in FP2 were Toro Rosso. Honda have fitted out both Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley with new internal combustion engines for Sochi, as they ramp up towards becoming engine suppliers to front-runners Red Bull (and Toro Rosso) for 2019.

And whatever magic dust Honda have sprinkled on the power units seemed to have worked, with Gasly winding up in eighth place, just 0.015s back from Perez.

So Force India vs Toro Rosso for best of the rest in pure pace terms in Russia? On the strength of FP2, it could well be, with both Haas and Renault’s best times – set by Kevin Magnussen in P11 and Carlos Sainz in P12 – over two-tenths back from Perez. Bear in mind, however, that both Toro Rosso drivers (and Fernando Alonso) will join Verstappen and Ricciardo at the back of the grid on Sunday, after rafts of new power unit element changes for each of those drivers.

Penalised Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo have taken on fresh gearboxes for this weekend’s Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix.

Verstappen and Ricciardo have reverted to Renault’s B-Spec engine and the new components mean they must start at the back of the grid.

Their exact positions will be determined following Saturday’s qualifying session, with Toro Rosso pair Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley, along with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, also slapped with the same sanction.

Red Bull has opted to use the situation to its advantage by giving Verstappen and Ricciardo a fresh gearbox, with the subsequent five-place penalty effectively nullified.

Verstappen and Ricciardo finished third and fourth respectively during practice at the Sochi Autodrom, as Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas led the way.

“It was a good Friday for us, it’s better than expected to be third in FP2," said Verstappen.

“Straight away the car was working well, the long runs were good and we seem to be in good shape.

“Overall, the performance of the car is pleasing, we just need to understand the tyres better and work out the plan for the race.

“It was good to be in the mix with Ferrari and so far we can’t really complain."

Added Ricciardo: “The car felt good today and I really enjoyed driving. The circuit was actually good fun and we had pretty good pace.

“We got some traffic on the long runs this afternoon which gave us some feeling of how it will be in the race.

“It’s not the easiest track to overtake on, but we eventually got it done, so I think the race should be pretty entertaining.

“I’m happy to see there is some tyre degradation, if it’s an easy one-stop race it could be a bit predictable, so I’m hoping it could be a two-stop to make it more exciting

“Russia has never been our strongest circuit but today there are some good signs."

Quotes

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton

Sochi has been one of the weaker circuits for me in the past, particularly last year. So I've done a lot of work to understand the balance and see where I can improve to try and rectify this – today has been good in that sense. From every race we're learning more and more and particularly the last few races have helped us to really gauge which foot we need to start on for the weekend. We've brought more upgrades this weekend; there's so much work going on at home and it's just really encouraging when you come to a race and you get an upgrade, knowing that this late in the season we're also already working on next year's car – it motivates me to get the best out of everything. It's been a good day for us, so let's hope that it continues tomorrow.

Valtteri Bottas
It was a good day for us; on paper it looks like we should be competitive, but it's only Friday. The initial feeling of the car was good; however, there's still work to do. It's so difficult to get a perfect set-up for each corner on this track, because the balance is so different throughout the lap. We brought some aerodynamic updates to the car that worked well and added more grip; we'll see if that's going to be enough for the weekend. It seemed like Ferrari weren't really showing everything they have, so they will probably be stronger tomorrow. I think it's going to be very close, so we'll have to keep pushing.

James Allison
It's been a pretty decent day where both cars looked strong on all the tires we ran. The HyperSoft is once again a very good, fast tire for a single lap, but it is less obvious here than it was in Singapore whether it will be so strong in the race. The long-runs went well, we looked competitive on them and the car generally behaved itself – so far, so good. We're looking forward to tomorrow and seeing how it all pans out once it starts to count.

MAX VERSTAPPEN
"It was a good Friday for us. It’s better than expected to be third in FP2. Straight away the car was working well, the long runs were good and we seem to be in good shape. Overall, the performance of the car is pleasing, we just need to understand the tyres better and work out the plan for the race. The information we received today was very good and we have the evening ahead to analyse everything. It was good to be in the mix with Ferrari and so far we can’t really complain. I don’t know what the strategy for qualifying tomorrow will be, but we probably won’t do the full session. I also expect Ferrari to find something overnight, so it’s going to be close tomorrow. Taking the penalties here is not so bad because it’s not our strongest track, so it’s best to get it out of the way. Starting from the back of the grid should be fun. I mean, moving forward and passing people is never easy, but we’ll see how far we can get."

DANIEL RICCIARDO
“The car felt good today and I really enjoyed driving. The circuit was actually good fun and we had pretty good pace. Because you don’t have any banking to give you extra grip on the corners, coming here with the Hypersoft gives you the grip you need, which made it more enjoyable. We got some traffic on the long runs this afternoon which gave us some feeling of how it will be in the race. It’s not the easiest track to overtake on, but we eventually got it done, so I think the race should be pretty entertaining. I’m happy to see there is some tyre degradation, if it’s an easy one-stop race it could be a bit predictable, so I’m hoping it could be a two-stop to make it more exciting. There isn’t much use in us doing the full qualifying tomorrow due to the penalties, but we will see how we go after FP3 and decide what to do then. We did plenty of running this afternoon and I know we have some good data from that. It will be important to do another long run in FP3 and prepare fully for the race. Russia has never been our strongest circuit but today there are some good signs."

Sebastian Vettel: “Some Fridays are good, some aren’t and this one hasn’t been great for us. We are not where we want to be yet and we’ve got some catching-up to do. Today it was difficult to put the laps together, we went through the tyres too fast, especially the front left, and struggled a bit with both the fast laps and with fuel on board. There was also a lot of traffic and obviously this never helps. Now we have some work to do, as we need to find the reasons for that and come back stronger. However, I am positive as ever, as I think that tomorrow and on Sunday it will be better and we’ll find out the right things to apply. We want to put both cars on the front row tomorrow; we don’t know yet what will happen, but we’ll try to do our best as pole is the best place to start from".

Kimi Raikkonen: “Usually, on Friday, it is always tricky with the tires; then the situation improves, the circuit cleans up and there’s more grip to be found. Today, the conditions we found were pretty much those we had expected. Normally, we don’t look too much into the lap times on Friday ; we try many things and learn from it. For sure there’s some work to be done and there are things to improve, but this is normal. We’ll see what tomorrow brings in qualifying, when everybody is pushing to the maximum.

Practice 2 Results