Hamilton: "It was a bit of a difficult day for us"
Somewhat behind the Ferraris, the two Mercedes drivers will still have their work cut out on Saturday if they are to catch Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen. Valtteri Bottas twice beat team-mate Lewis Hamilton to the top of the timesheets.
Mercedes experienced a rather unusual Friday in Sochi, far from their usual domination and especially far from the best times set by the Ferrari drivers.
Lewis Hamilton therefore expects a heavy workload on Saturday to get back on track: « It was a bit of a difficult day for us. We managed to do everything we needed during our runs, but in terms of balance on the car, the Ferrari seems very, very fast on longer runs. So we need to work and improve our pace. »
For Valtteri Bottas, the transition between the very hot conditions of Bahrain and the cooler conditions of Russia is one of the explanations for the relative underperformance of the Silver Arrows: « It’s a very different situation regarding the asphalt and temperatures compared to what we experienced in Bahrain. We learned about the tires on short and long stints, and it seems that beyond one lap, we are going to have to improve our performance on Ultra Softs. That’s going to be our job for tonight. But we must not forget the importance of the race. We started the weekend well, and the balance of the car is good.» confided the Finn.
