Much has been written about the fact that Mercedes have never been beaten at the Russian Grand Prix, but after the first day of free practice at Sochi Autodrom it appears that Ferrari are intent on changing this statistic as Sebastian Vettel ended the day fastest of all with teammate Kimi Raikkonen second best on the day.
Vettel’s best lap time of 1:34.120 was a quarter second faster than Raikkonen’s best, which also happened to be 3.5 seconds faster than the time set in the same session last year.
Next up were the Mercedes duo with Valtteri Bottas fractionally faster than teammate Lewis Hamilton, but notably they were over half a second shy of Vettel’s top time.
Next up, but well off the top pace was Max Verstappen with the fifth best time, nearly 1.4 seconds down on the time sheet topping pace. The Dutchman was forced to park his car with a power loss issue, and could only manage 15 laps which was half what most of his rivals did in the 90 minutes afternoon session.
Daniel Ricciardo was sixth fastest in the other Red Bull, 1.7 seconds adrift of the benchmark time.
Report in progress…
Russian Grand Prix, Sochi Autodrom – Free Practice 2, Best Lap Times
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | TIME | GAP | LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | FERRARI | 1:34.120 | 36 | |
| 2 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | FERRARI | 1:34.383 | +0.263s | 36 |
| 3 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | MERCEDES | 1:34.790 | +0.670s | 36 |
| 4 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 1:34.829 | +0.709s | 34 |
| 5 | 33 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER | 1:35.540 | +1.420s | 15 |
| 6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER | 1:35.910 | +1.790s | 26 |
| 7 | 19 | Felipe Massa | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 1:36.261 | +2.141s | 39 |
| 8 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | RENAULT | 1:36.329 | +2.209s | 38 |
| 9 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | 1:36.506 | +2.386s | 31 |
| 10 | 11 | Sergio Perez | FORCE INDIA MERCEDES | 1:36.600 | +2.480s | 38 |
| 11 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | FORCE INDIA MERCEDES | 1:36.654 | +2.534s | 39 |
| 12 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | MCLAREN HONDA | 1:36.765 | +2.645s | 27 |
| 13 | 30 | Jolyon Palmer | RENAULT | 1:36.771 | +2.651s | 22 |
| 14 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | HAAS FERRARI | 1:37.039 | +2.919s | 31 |
| 15 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | TORO ROSSO | 1:37.083 | +2.963s | 36 |
| 16 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | MCLAREN HONDA | 1:37.125 | +3.005s | 25 |
| 17 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | TORO ROSSO | 1:37.300 | +3.180s | 35 |
| 18 | 94 | Pascal Wehrlein | SAUBER FERRARI | 1:37.441 | +3.321s | 30 |
| 19 | 18 | Lance Stroll | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 1:37.747 | +3.627s | 36 |
| 20 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | SAUBER FERRARI | 1:37.819 | +3.699s | 29 |
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
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