Notebook – Russian Practice
Ferrari were fastest in both the free practice sessions ahead of this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in first practice going four hundredth of a second faster than his fellow Finn, Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes.
While team-mate Sebastian Vettel outpaced Raikkonen in second practice by a quarter of a second.
Ferrari in strong form
We have seen over the pass few weekends that Ferrari are a genuine contender for the championship. We can’t write them off anymore as they are showing they have the pace and the ability to beat Mercedes. However, we know Mercedes will up the pace on Saturday.
The gap is close between the two teams that is fact. But, I think Mercedes are now having that realisation that this title isn’t is the bag like it has been. I think Ferrari have benefited from the change to a more aero formula.
Vettel has said tonight to ESPN, despite the long run form looking good that Mercedes drivers are as far off as they look. “I think they will be fine. It’s a circuit that suits them so they will be strong tomorrow.”
He says that practice can’t always been seen as a reliable indicator because last season it was thought following free practice, Williams could have been fastest. But, Nico Rosberg to qualify a second quicker than the fastest Williams on the Saturday.
“That’s how sometimes it can be misleading [in Friday practice] and I think there are a lot of things we can play with in the car: fuel loads, engines modes.
Mercedes
Ferrari will not it appears to have the big lead over Mercedes. As I believe they could have been a lot closer to Vettel in FP2. Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas had a messy session, meaning they struggled to get their car in the operating window for the tyres.
That will harm them in the race on the long runs if their tyre drop away, however Bottas did manage to lap consistently between a 38.7 and 38.5. So you can’t write him or Hamilton off because there race form looks really strong.
About Ferrari’s pace team boss Toto Wolff said “The Ferrari seems to be a car that is pretty robust in a wider window temperature than ours, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s Bahrain, where it’s very hot, or Sochi where it’s cold. It’s just a very good car.”
But Hamilton says that the team are not sandbagging telling Sky Sports “It’s one lap, it’s much more important what we did after that. I think we improved throughout the session so I’m reasonably happy.”
McLaren first penalty
The next instalment of this McLaren / Honda saga sees the team get there first penalty for exceeding the allocation of penalty free engine parts on Stoffel Vandoorne’s car.
In FP1, the car had a MGU-K failure which caused the team to fit a fifth MGU-H and fifth turbocharger of the season. These changes add up to a total grid penalty of fifteen places. The rules say when a fifth element is used a driver drops back ten places and another five for every element used after that.
This was a whole new power unit, which had been upgraded for this weekend to improve the reliability of the engine. The pressure and tension in the team must be building, how much more can the team take.
Red Bull
Red Bull are going to be the best of the rest this weekend. They were almost second behind Mercedes on track and Max Verstappen stopped on track with a lack of power in FP2. But he was ahead of Daniel Ricciardo by three tenths in that session.
Verstappen was also ahead in FP1, but we know Ricciardo had a suspension change. Ricciardo agrees with the assessment I’ve made, telling Motorsport.com “”In terms of us here this weekend, we know this is what we have got, so we are trying to do what we can with the current car and package.”
“But we are not expecting anything too much this weekend. We will try to do what we can, get the job done and then hopefully fight for a bit more in a few weeks.”
Verstappen has also reviled why he came to a stop in FP2, when he reported he was “out of power”. He said the problem was fuel pressure-related, while admitting that Sochi is not a track that plays to Red Bull’s strengths.
He said the stoppage was because “The problem we think is the fuel pressure. It is a bit of a shame of course, we couldn’t really do a long run. We need to look at what we can improve tomorrow, this track anyway is not our favourite so we just try to make the best out of it.”
Midfield
The midfield pack was very close on pace in both the practice sessions we had Sergio Perez lead the group in FP1. Felipe Massa was eighth and Lance Stroll ninth only .05 of a second off the pace. This could set us up that group up for both a tight qualifying and race on Sunday.
In FP2 you had the Renaults and the Force India’s covered by less than a second. McLaren were also in that group, but I don’t think in race trim or qualifying for that matter, that they can be in that group.
Remember in Bahrain, we had a very closely fought battle between the midfield after the Stroll/Sainz incident.
Qualifying Preview
Tomorrow’s qualifying it appears that Mercedes could be on the back foot this weekend again. But, I don’t think they will because we seen a pattern long term, they turn up the car for Saturday and Sunday. But, Ferrari have beat Mercedes on strategy in Bahrain.
It will be tough to call on track because they are really tight on track and Valtteri Bottas surprised us in Bahrain. Personally, I’m struggling to pick who would take pole. But, pushing myself I say Lewis Hamilton from Valtteri Bottas.
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