Mercedes’ dominance was restored as they enjoyed a full one-second advantage in Practice 2 at the Russian Grand Prix.
Once again it was Valtteri Bottas who set the quickest time, a 1m33.519s, to lead teammate Lewis Hamilton by two-tenths of a second.
The Briton could have easily gone P1 himself though, as he was on course for a faster lap before locking his brakes into Turn 13.
Hamilton’s main advantage was in the twisty final sector as Bottas found himself power-sliding wide out of the final corner on several occasions.
Mercedes though are in a class of their own around a Sochi track where they’ve never lost, with Daniel Ricciardo a second behind Bottas in third, albeit still impressing in the Renault.
McLaren made big gains, as Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris jumped from outside the top 10 in FP1 to fourth and fifth respectively in FP2.
Sergio Perez also overcame the lack of upgrades he has compared to teammate Lance Stroll as he finished a massive 0.8s ahead of the Canadian in sixth for Racing Point.
You have to go all the way down to seventh to find Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, with the Dutchman struggling for grip and having a scruffy soft tyre run.
After running wide over the sausage kerb at Turn 2 on his first lap, Max would then spin at Turn 14 on his second.
Ferrari looks a little more competitive with Charles Leclerc eighth and Sebastian Vettel 10th, either side of Esteban Ocon in the second Renault.
Pierre Gasly led Alex Albon and teammate Daniil Kvyat in P11-13, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in 14th in the Alfa Romeo.
The two Williams’ were 15th and 16th as Nicholas Latifi recovered from his morning crash to lead George Russell by just 0.012s.
Stroll found himself down in 17th just ahead of the two Haas’ and Antonio Giovinazzi.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
