Russian GP Practice Two: Lewis Hamilton dominates at Sochi as McLaren impress
Rosberg only a distant fourth behind McLaren's Magnussen & Ferrari's Alonso; Red Bull off the pace as Ricciardo stops late on
Friday 17 October 2014 18:49, UK
World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton laid down the gauntlet to Nico Rosberg ahead of the inaugural Russian GP by setting a searing pace at the end of F1’s opening day in Sochi.
While the off-track thoughts of the sport throughout Friday remained with Jules Bianchi as the Frenchman continues to fight for his life in hospital in Japan, the business of on-track matters produced some fascinating potential trends for the weekend ahead.
In some regards P2 delivered the usual 2014 norm, Mercedes set the pace yet again with Hamilton - for the 13th time in 16 attempts this year - faster than team-mate and title rival Rosberg in the afternoon session. However, there were surprises at the head of the timesheet and they were twofold: Hamilton’s advantage over the field was a whopping 0.8s and Rosberg finished only fourth, the German relegated by one McLaren and one Ferrari.
The caveat to the unusually large difference between Mercedes' two championship contenders was that morning pacesetter Rosberg blew what would have been a significantly faster lap on the soft tyres when he ran wide at the penultimate corner. Indeed, the fact the lap still ended up as the German's personal best underlined how much speed had been left dormant in the second W05.
"I'm curious to see what Rosberg can do without making a mistake on the last part of the lap. I think they are more evenly matched than we think," Sky Sports F1's practice co-commentator Bruno Senna observed.
"But Lewis was extremely committed. I really want to see what's going to happen tomorrow."
Still, with the championship momentum having shifted in his favour after a hat-trick of victories, the fact Hamilton ended Friday as the only man to break the 1:40 barrier around the 5.8km lap (1:39.630) sets him up strongly for the race weekend ahead.
"It's been good, I generally feel comfortable on new circuits and learning them, the car has been feeling really good. The track was rubbering in and getting grippier and grippier. There's a nice flow you can get on this track, I'm really enjoying it," Hamilton told Sky Sports News HQ.
"The McLarens are close, which is good for everyone to have a race. They're looking good, but we'll see how it is tomorrow."
More unusually, in light of their mediocre 2014 form, Hamilton's old team McLaren showed very encouraging signs for the weekend ahead as rookie Kevin Magnussen finished the day with the second-fastest time. The Dane and team-mate Jenson Button (sixth) had traded fastest times with the Mercedes' on both the medium and soft tyres before Hamilton suddenly went up several gears in the final reckoning.
Ferrari have made more regular appearances towards the sharp end of practice timesheets this year and Fernando Alonso finished third here on Friday, the Spaniard having run out of sequence relative to most by completing his soft-tyre run later in the session.
If Rosberg's fourth place is taken as an anomaly given Hamilton's speed in the other W05, less than three tenths of a second covered McLaren, Ferrari and Williams on the timesheet down to seventh place. However, Red Bull, who are likely to officially lose their Constructors' Championship crown to Mercedes in Sunday's race, wound up at the foot of the top ten alongside junior team Toro Rosso.
Sebastian Vettel took several trips into the circuit's run-off areas on the way to ninth place, the German a massive 1.7 seconds of the pace, while Daniel Ricciardo fared even worse in 13th and then saw his RB10 grind to a ha
