Valtteri Bottas(Mercedes Petronas) topped the Russian GP FP2 at Sochi Autodrome in Russia. The track that sorrounds the Russian Olympic park proved hard for the drivers to master all day as the track is dusty making it hard for the cars to maintain grip on the track. As the cars continued to rubber in on the track, the drivers became confident and were able to push the cars to their limits.
The Free Practice 2 saw quicker lap times than the First Practice session. Romain Grosjean was the first out of the pits in the afternoon session. Contrary to the first session, which had very few drivers on the track, all the drivers were on in the afternoon session to challenge their lap times.
The first incident occured barely fifteen minutes from the start, which saw Lance Stroll spinning into turn 13 buth however no harm was caused and the canadian went on to finish 17th. Lewis Hamilton who had struggled in the FP1 also saw himself in a predicament in the afternoon session as he experienced a tyre stress at turn 13 compromising his purple sector time which saw his lap getting scrapped. Seconds later his teammate Valtteri Bottas had an issue in the purple lap which later saw him lose time through sector 3. The two Mercedes drivers were certainly testing the limits of their W11 cars.
Daniel Ricciardo(Renault) and Lando Norris(Mclaren) were able to record impressive lap times coming in 3rd and 4th respectively. Max Verstappen also fell victim to a spin at turn fourteen as he concluded the session ranking 7th.
Traffic proved to be an issue when all cars were on track, and George Russell was one driver unhappy about this particular issue. As usual, he pushed his Williams FW43 as hard as he could but could only manage a 1:35.5 to earn him sixteenth only. His team-mate Nicholas Latifi was most likely tip-toeing around the circuit after a crash in Free Practice One rendered him unable to complete any more running, and the Canadian ended up in fifteenth place.
There was also action in the paddock as well as the track during the session, and with twenty minutes to go it was officially announced that ex-Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali would replace Chase Carey as the CEO of Formula 1. Domenicali will undertake the role on New Years Day next year.
As the session ended, it was Bottas 0.267s faster than team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes pair were eons ahead of the rest of the field in both sessions today, and it was Ricciardo who finished closest to the duo in third.
Carlos Sainz was the fastest of the two McLaren’s, and finished fourth- one place ahead of Norris. The top ten was completed by Sergio Pérez, Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel.
