Russian GP grid Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m31.387s – 2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m31.532s 0.145s 3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m31.943s 0.556s 4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m32.237s 0.850s 5 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m33.181s 1.794s 6 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1m33.413s 2.026s 7 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 1m33.419s 2.032s 8 Sergio Perez Force […]
Pos. Driver Car Gap 1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG F1 1:33.067 2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes AMG F1 +0.254 3 Sebastian Vettel Scuderia Ferrari +0.600 4 Kimi Raikkonen Scuderia Ferrari +0.621 5 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.870 6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing +1.327 7 Charles Leclerc Sauber Alfa Romeo +1.561 8 Esteban Ocon Force […]
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.”
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.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport top the time sheets on Friday afternoon Lewis finished the morning session in P3 with Valtteri in P4 Lewis ended the day in P1 with Valtteri in P2 Today’s programme focused on understanding the tyres performance around the track as well as testing aerodynamic upgrades the team brought to Sochi Driver Chassis […]
“Obviously we looked quite far away from the rest of the field, so [it’s] not ideal. I think [we were] struggling a bit for one lap pace, but also in the long runs,” Vettel said following the running on Friday.
Pos. Driver Car Gap 1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG F1 1:33.389 2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes AMG F1 +0.199 3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.442 4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing +0.459 5 Sebastian Vettel Scuderia Ferrari +0.543 6 Kimi Raikkonen Scuderia Ferrari +1.003 7 Sergio Perez Force India +1.737 8 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso […]