SOCHI, Russia — Max Verstappen might have finished the second practice session at the top of the timesheets, but it was Ferrari that emerged as the best bet for success in Russia after Friday practice. That’s not to say Verstappen’s lap wasn’t impressive — his pace in the final sector of the Sochi lap was particularly quick — but with a five-place penalty hanging over him for an engine change, the best he can hope for on the grid is sixth.
Meanwhile, Ferrari continued to hold the edge over Mercedes. Charles Leclerc was 0.311s faster than Valtteri Bottas’ best lap — again, with Ferrari’s advantage coming on the straights. Mercedes estimates the Ferraris are gaining as much as 0.8s on the straights alone, and, despite making back a significant amount of time in the corners, the silver cars have no answer for that kind of advantage over a single lap.
But this wasn’t an easy day for Mercedes, and the team is confident there are big gains to be unlocked ahead of qualifying. Finding the correct balance at the Sochi Autodrom is never straightforward, and Lewis Hamilton said he spent the day chasing the tyres and the conditions.
“It started off good, then it kind of tailed off, and then it was a bit better towards the end of the second session,” he said. “It’s crazy because you’re constantly trying to follow the track progression, and as the track progression goes up, the balance shifts, so you make some changes.
“Then the front comes in better or the rears come in better — it’s a constant balancing act. You only have a few opportunities to change with the setup [during practice]. It’s going to be tough day tomorrow, but I hope it’s going to be raining, I heard it’s going to be raining!”
But there was a more positive message from the technical side of the team. Technical director James Allison said the car’s problems are mainly linked to getting the front tyres in the right operating window for a single lap.
“That was mostly a difficult day but with some bright moments in it that give us hope that we can do a good job tomorrow and on Sunday,” he said. “We’re quite clearly a little bit out of step with the other teams in terms of our first-lap performance on a track where we’ve traditionally found it a bit difficult to get the front tyres to the temperature we need them.
“But we made some decent learning steps during the day and if we carry on in that direction, then things should look brighter tomorrow. We’re also quite reassured by the fact that on high fuel and when the first lap is taken out of the picture, the car looks swift and looks like it will be a good racing car. There’s definitely a load of work for us still to do, but hopefully we can get that done well and put the frustrations of today behind us and retain the good bits that we saw.”
However, Ferrari intends to be a moving target for Mercedes, and Leclerc is also confident his team will unlock more pace ahead of qualifying and the race.
“There is still quite a lot of lap time to be gained on our side,” the Ferrari driver said. “It’s mostly the balance throughout the qualifying lap. It’s a track where the rears are struggling a little bit in the last sector, so you need to maybe compromise it a bit in the first sector to be better in the third sector, and we are struggling to find the balance in that.”
But single-lap performance hasn’t really been a concern for Ferrari of late — and if the wet forecast holds true, it will be of little significance too. In Singapore, Ferrari’s single-lap pace helped secure pole position for Leclerc, but it was only the nature of the track — and the inherent difficulty of overtaking — that helped mask the car’s shortcomings over a race distance. Had Mercedes not messed up its strategy by failing to make use of the undercut on lap 19, Hamilton should have come out on top.
The big anomaly in Russia is that Ferrari’s long-run pace also looks good. Usually on a Friday Mercedes holds a distinct advantage over its rivals when heavy fuel loads are paired with aging tyres towards the end of second practice, but in Russia the advantage was minimal to none as average lap times looked closely matched. Ferrari is making rapid progress with its car, and it appears the upgraded aerodynamic package at Singapore has been tuned towards improving race pace in Sochi.
“I don’t think we have been the fastest today but certainly we were competitive, and that was important for us,” team principal Mattia Binotto said on Friday evening. “It was important that, yes, it is true we did a fantastic quali in Singapore with the new aero package, but I think it was important to confirm how good was the package coming here on a different type of track and different type of set-up. I think today the car behaves well, we’ve been fast, we’ve been competitive as well on the high-fuel runs.
“Generally speaking, quite happy, at least for today.”
The only shame is that Red Bull is unlikely to be a part of the fight. Tactical engine changes have left both cars with five-place grid penalties, and while the pace of Verstappen is good over a single lap and on race pace, it’s unlikely that will be enough to overcome the grid drop.
For neutral fans, the main positive to be drawn from Friday is that the closing margins at the front bode well for the upcoming races — not to mention the 2020 season. In the past few races, Ferrari has addressed its main weakness in slow-speed corners while Honda has made steady progression on Red Bull’s lack of power. The result is three very distinct cars, which are quick on different parts of the track but remarkably close over an entire lap. When grid penalties aren’t an issue, that should make for great racing.