Russian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2: Bottas Repeats

The Russian Grand Prix weekend continued this afternoon with the second free practice session, dominated by an incisive Bottas.

Lando Norris was the first to take to the track and set the initial benchmark at 1:36.130, before Valtteri Bottas improved the time by 65 thousandths of a second.

Most of the drivers initially left the pits on hard tires. Lewis Hamilton then improved the benchmark time by clocking a 1:34.890. Then Lance Stroll spun at the same spot as Romain Grosjean did this morning, without damage. Charles Leclerc, meanwhile, went out on yellow tires after 15 minutes of testing. Then, the Mercedes drivers switched to soft tires, which allowed Bottas to be the first driver to go under 1:34 by clocking a 1:33.883, just before being beaten by Hamilton with his 1:33.786!

After 30 minutes of the session, Hamilton lit up the tires while improving, going straight and narrowly avoiding the Tecpro barrier. Shortly after, Bottas improved the weekend’s best time again by setting a 1:33.519. 10 minutes later, several drivers put on the softest tires and improvements followed one after another.

Midway through the session, Max Verstappen spun harmlessly. The Dutch driver complained over the radio about an unstable car.

Half an hour before the end of the session, Pierre Gasly came out of the pits on soft tires to perform stint simulations while Lewis Hamilton locked up his tires again at the same spot as 30 minutes earlier. Five minutes later, Bottas returned to the pits, complaining about a piece that was blocking the movement of his left hand, and came back out a few seconds later.

Bottas experiences another scare 15 minutes before the end of the session by locking his wheels and narrowly missing the Tecpro barriers. Nevertheless, the Finn finishes this second free practice session at the top, ahead of a more discreet Hamilton than his teammate. Daniel Ricciardo confirmed this Friday afternoon with the 3rd fastest time, but the McLarens are less than two-tenths of a second behind. As for the Ferraris, Leclerc finishes the session in 8th place while Vettel is 10th.

Ranking of the FP2 for the Russian Grand Prix: