Mercedes top the time tables in FP2

Mercedes once again showed that Sochi is still their kingdom repating their 1/2 finish from FP1. Both Bottas and Hamilton finished well ahead of the rest of the pack 0.2 seconds ahead of Pierre Gasly in third. Despite Verstappen having a new power unit in the back of his Red Bull he struggled to match his rivals finshing over a second down on Bottas leaving the dutchman a frustrated figure after the session.

With the sun beatin down for free practice 2 in Sochi conditions were ideal for the drivers to test their cars once again. Following on from his epic victory in Italy there were unfortunately more difficulties following on from FP1 for Daniel Ricciardo as he was forced to fit a new power unit into his McLaren. But despite the change his pace was still lacking throughout the session finishing 2 seconds off the leaders.

Showing fine form in FP1 it was Charles Leclerc who was first to use the soft compound in the session and set the pace. As the day rolled on though drivers quickly started to up their anty. Both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon looked fast in the early parts of the session to cement their place amongst the contenders this weekend.

Half way through Antonio Giovanazzi gave us our first major incident of the day as he bough out the first red flag of the weekend after his spin at turn 10. After the resumption of the session there was little rearangment in the order with most teams opting to go for a longer run format to test their race performance.

With his teammate taking to the back of the grid for the race Red Bull would have hoped for Sergio Perex to show a little more pace from his car but was unable to extract anything decent from his car finishing down in P11.

With a look ahead to Qulaifying tomorrow its looking more predictable than ever with Mercedes the outright favourite for a one two finish but with the rain on its way anything could be possible...