Hamilton 0.7s clear of Vettel in second; German suffered electrical failure in the Ferrari; Rosberg finishes session third in Sochi
Saturday 30 April 2016 15:27, UK
Lewis Hamilton responded to Nico Rosberg's strong start to the weekend by dominating Practice Two at the Russian GP.
The world champion was quickest in all three sectors to set a fastest lap time of 1:37.583 on the supersoft tyre, almost 0.9 seconds clear of his Mercedes team-mate, who finished third behind Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel was around seven tenths adrift of Hamilton though his session was cut short after an electrical failure in the Ferrari as the German was forced to pull up on the pit straight, and was soon pushed back to the garage by stewards.
The Ferrari driver's problems in Sochi were then compounded by a five-place gearbox change grid penalty.
Rosberg, who has won the first three races of the season, topped the timesheets in P1 but wasn't able to set a representative time on the quicker tyre later on Friday and seemed to be held up in traffic, with Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo ending the session in fourth and fifth.
Hamilton didn't completely avoid issues, struggling along with many other drivers with a lack of grip around the former Winter Olympics venue, while his W07 was also stuck in the pits with a hydraulics problem for part of the afternoon. However, he was able to pull everything together for a superb flying lap on the red-marked compound.
Mercedes and Ferrari spend their first in-season engine tokens
Much like earlier in the day, Mercedes seemed to hold a distinct advantage over Ferrari and were more than half a second faster on both the soft and supersoft tyre.
Both teams have spent their first in-season engine tokens, with the Silver Arrows focusing on fuel-system improvements while Vettel and Raikkonen will race with new internal combustion engines. But the Scuderia's afternoon was once again dogged by reliability issues.
Vettel groaned that he had "lost electronics" after grinding to a halt on the start-finish straight and while he was wheeled back to the pits, a red ERS light flashing on the car meant it was not safe to touch. Mechanics worked on the SF16-H with insulation gloves on for the rest of the session.
Vettel and Raikkonen have both registered a DNF apiece in the opening three rounds and the Scuderia will hope it is a minor electrical issue on the car, rather than anything related to Vettel's third engine of the season.
WATCH: Red Bull test new canopy
"It seems to be every single weekend there's some reliability issue affecting that Ferrari power unit," Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft said.
Vettel, meanwhile, added: "The balance was not quite where I wanted it to be, but the circuit should come our way. It was quite slippery. Lacking a bit of information from my side but other people did their homework and hopefully we can copy that a bit."
The second half of P2 saw teams focus on longer stints with the race again expected to be a one-stop affair. Ricciardo, after his earlier eye-catching lap trialling the Red Bull canopy, displayed remarkable consistency in comparison to Raikkonen, who struggled with tyre wear.
There was another promising Friday performance for McLaren as Jenson Button finished just three thousandths of a second behind Daniil Kvyat in eighth, with Fernando Alonso two tenths slower in 10th.
Haas, meanwhile, weren't able to replicate their early-season form once again, with Romain Grosjean reporting that "something isn't working on the car since China". He and Esteban Gutierrez finished P16 and P17 respectively.
Practice Two timesheet
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:37.583
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:38.235
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:38.450
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:38.793
5. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:38.793
6. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:39.185
7. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:39.193
8. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:39.196
9. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:39.289
10. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:39.400
11. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:39.465
12. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1:39.501
13. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:39.795
14. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:39.867
15. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1:40.193
16. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 1:40.260
17. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, 1:40.508
18. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:40.688
19. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:40.740
20. Rio Haryanto, Manor, 1:41.080
21. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, 1:41.148
22. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:41.652
Watch the whole Russian GP weekend - LIVE ONLY on Sky Sports F1. The race begins at 1pm on Sunday, with build-up from 11.30am. Or watch the race without a contract for £6.99 on NOW TV.
