The Russian Grand Prix has been more then a happy hunting ground for Mercedes, and they have started this weekend on the front foot in their usual fashion at this venue.
With Saturday’s schedule in the air due to the ominous weather that looks to be hitting the track, drivers and teams had to decide whether to head their focus for a potential wet qualifying session, or on a dry race setup with qualifying potentially moved to Sunday morning.
Valtteri Bottas has always enjoyed his time at this track, and he managed to end Friday at the top of the timings with a time of 1:33.593s placing him 0.044s ahead of his teammate, Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes seemed to have a relatively calm day with no issues, apart from Hamilton doing his best to take out his front jack mechanic in the pit lane after a problem with the ‘magic’ brake.
Red Bull have not had success of any kind in Russia, as both drivers found themselves struggling with their kits of machinery. Max Verstappen ended the day down in sixth, a full second from the Mercedes cars. However, undoubtedly Red Bull and their Dutch driver had their focus solely on the race announcing that Verstappen will take a fourth engine of the season, meaning he will start the race from the back of the grid. That means it is a big weekend for Sergio Perez as his team will be relying on him more then usual, but ending Friday down in 11th is not the start they would have wanted.
Pierre Gasly found himself ending up looking strong yet again with third at the end of the day, but the Frenchman would see his session ending with him limping back to the pits after a whack with the sausage kerbs at turn two and three ripped his front wing from his car. But still, Gasly put a gap between himself and his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, of 2.1 seconds with his rookie teammate down in 18th.
High from their win from Monza, McLaren endured a mixed day with their drivers. Despite a hiccup at the end of the morning session for Lando Norris which saw him spin at the pit entry, the British driver managed to squeeze his name into fourth by the end of day. Daniel Ricciardo wouldn’t enjoy his time as much. The Australian saw himself missing large parts of the afternoon session after a technical issue kept him on the side-lines, with the most recent race winner finishing down in 17th.
Alpine saw both of their drivers within the top ten positions, with Esteban Ocon finishing eight tenths from the leading time in fifth, with Fernando Alonso just three tenths behind in eighth. Alonso, however, was not the quickest Spaniard in the field as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz nabbed seventh, less then a tenth ahead of his compatriot.
Ferrari have introduced a power unit upgrade for this weekend but only on Charles Leclerc’s side after deciding not to have both cars start from the back for the same race. Like Verstappen, Leclerc would solely focus on race performance as he ended the day in tenth.
Verstappen and Leclerc coming through from the back will be an entertaining sight to see.
Sebastian Vettel did not experience a fun Monza weekend, but has started the Russian weekend from the top ten in ninth. Aston Martin would hope to go well this weekend, considering the strengths of the Mercedes every season, but Lance Stroll finds himself trailing from the get go in 15th.
Kimi Raikkonen made his return to Formula 1 after missing the previous two races through illness. Despite something sticking itself in his eye, the Finn had a calming day in 12th, unlike his teammate. Although he ended up over a tenth from Raikkonen on the timings, Antonio Giovinazzi could not help but smack the wall at the exit of turn turn eight going into nine, destroying his rear wing in the process and putting an early end to his day.
George Russell would fit himself in an Alfa Romeo sandwich in 13th, with Nicholas Latifi taking the 16th position for Williams.
And, as usual for this season, the Haas pair filled the final places of the timings, with home driver Nikita Mazepin edging out Mick Schumacher by a tenth.
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