Bottas beats Hamilton as Mercedes dominates FP2

Valtteri Bottas led Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton during a largely uneventful second practice session for Formula 1’s Russian Grand Prix.

Bottas set a time of 1:33.519s to finish 0.267s of Hamilton and a full second ahead of third-placed Daniel Ricciardo.

The Mercedes drivers classified comfortably fastest despite making mistakes on their respective hot laps around the Sochi Autodrom.

Bottas had a wild moment through the final corner on both of his push laps and lost half a second to his benchmark time at the second split.

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Hamilton was also on course for a much faster personal best – which would have eclipsed Bottas’ time – but locked up heavily and had to take to the Turn 13 run-off, abandoning his second push lap.

Mercedes has never been beaten at Sochi since the circuit joined the calendar in 2014.

Red Bull off the pace

Red Bull has regularly been Mercedes’ main challenger in 2020 but the team has had a subdued record at Sochi, failing to take a single podium in six years.

Some of that has been down to taking tactical engine changes but it has never performed strongly at the venue and that trend continued on Friday.

Max Verstappen complained of a lack of grip through the first corners on his hot lap as he went deep into Turn 2 and bounced across the orange kerb.

He wound up only seventh, 1.5s off the pace, while team-mate Alexander Albon was down in 12th position.

Ricciardo fronts the distant chargers

Renault’s form his picked up in recent rounds and Ricciardo spearheaded the group of drivers behind the dominant Mercedes duo.

The Australian, who has finished fourth twice in the last three events, classified ahead of McLaren pair Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris.

Sergio Perez snuck into sixth place for Racing Point as team-mate Lance Stroll finished down the order in 17th after a mistake on his hot lap.

Ferrari was closer to the midfield than in recent events as Charles Leclerc classified eighth, only 0.004s down on Verstappen, with Sebastian Vettel rounding out the top 10.

Renault’s Esteban Ocon classified in ninth position.

Raikkonen leads ‘Class C’

Kimi Raikkonen fronted the usual group of backmarkers and was within reach of the AlphaTauri drivers and Red Bull’s Albon.

The Alfa Romeo driver’s best lap time left him within a tenth of sole home representative Daniil Kvyat, as Pierre Gasly fronted AlphaTauri’s charge a couple of tenths further ahead in 11th place.

Nicholas Latifi’s presence on-track was delayed after his FP1 crash but he returned to action and went faster than Williams team-mate George Russell, the pair 15th and 16th respectively.

Kevin Magnussen, Antonio Giovinazzi and Romain Grosjean completed the 20-car field.

Final practice will begin on Saturday at 12:00 local time.