{"id":6324,"date":"2018-09-29T00:21:45","date_gmt":"2018-09-29T04:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=6324"},"modified":"2018-10-17T11:58:03","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T15:58:03","slug":"russian-gp-takeaways-from-friday-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2018\/09\/29\/russian-gp-takeaways-from-friday-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian GP \u2013 Takeaways from Friday Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong>Formula 1<\/strong><b> Russian Grand Prix <\/b>weekend is underway. A thrilling fight between the top teams is expected to happen on Saturday and Sunday.<b> Mercedes<\/b>&#8216;<b> Lewis Hamilton <\/b>was the fastest driver on Friday, with a fastest lap of 1:33.385s.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Valtteri Bottas<\/strong> was second in FP2 to his teammate Hamilton. The two <strong>Red Bull<\/strong> drivers, <strong>Max Verstappen <\/strong>and<strong> Daniel Ricciardo<\/strong>, and the <strong>Scuderia Ferrari<\/strong> pair of <strong>Sebastian Vettel <\/strong>and<strong> Kimi Raikkonen\u00a0<\/strong>lined up behind the two Mercedes drivers.<\/p>\n<h1>Russian GP \u2013 Takeaways from Friday Practice<\/h1>\n<p>Both\u00a0free practice sessions were in dry conditions, with a cloudy FP2. The track had rubbered down in the second session and offered more grip to the cars. Ferrari topped the timesheets in FP1 with Vettel, followed by Verstappen, both on the pink-striped hypersoft tire. Mercedes decided to run on the purple-striped ultrasoft and the yellow-striped soft tires in FP1.<\/p>\n<p>The Pirelli tire choice for this race is the yellow-striped soft tire, the purple-striped ultrasoft\u00a0tire, and the pink-striped hypersoft tire.<\/p>\n<h4>The main takeaways from the two practice sessions were:<\/h4>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Ferrari was fastest in FP1 with Vettel&#8217;s time being a 1:34.488s on the hypersoft tires. However, both Mercedes drivers were three-tenths and five-tenths respectively behind on the soft tire.<\/li>\n<li>Mercedes predictably dominated FP2 when they elected to run on the pink-striped hypersoft tire.<\/li>\n<li>Unpredictably, Red Bull lined both drivers ahead of the Ferrari pair in the most-important FP2, which might indicate that Ferrari is a step behind in Russia.<\/li>\n<li>The fight in front is expected to be between the usual suspects, Mercedes and Ferrari\u00a0since the two Red Bull cars will serve penalties due to Power Unit changes.<\/li>\n<li>Hamilton&#8217;s fastest lap of Friday is two-tenths slower compared to Vettel&#8217;s pole lap from last year at Sochi.<\/li>\n<li>In the midfield, <strong>Force India<\/strong> looks strong. <strong>Esteban Ocon<\/strong> was the only official driver for the pink team in FP1 and finished sixth. While <strong>Sergio P\u00e9rez<\/strong> took over from <strong>Nicholas Latifi<\/strong> in FP2 and ended seventh.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Renault<\/strong>,<strong> Haas<\/strong>,<strong> Sauber<\/strong>, and<strong> Toro Rosso <\/strong>seem to be engaged in a mixed battle for the last point-scoring positions. While <strong>McLaren<\/strong>, who put <strong>Lando Norris <\/strong>in<strong> Fernando Alonso<\/strong>&#8216;s car for FP1, and<strong> Williams <\/strong>were on the last spots of the timesheets.<\/li>\n<li>Alonso will join the two Red Bulls and both Toro Rossos to start the race from the back of the grid due to penalties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Last Word<\/h2>\n<div class=\"td-g-rec td-g-rec-id-content_inlineright\">Mercedes has dominated in Sochi since its entrance in 2014. Even though Ferrari locked the front two in last year&#8217;s qualifying, things look menacing for Mercedes&#8217; main rivals for this weekend. Considering its recent history on Fridays and the approach it has taken in the majority of the starts of the weekend, Ferrari might have some more pace to show in the upcoming events of the Grand Prix weekend.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2>Results of FP1:<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"it\">FP1 CLASSIFICATION: P10 for Giovinazzi ? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RussianGP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#RussianGP<\/a> ?? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/F1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#F1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vzdYujBA50\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/vzdYujBA50<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Formula 1 (@F1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/F1\/status\/1045607816634015745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">28 de septiembre de 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Results of FP2:<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">FP2 CLASSIFICATION: A strong session for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MercedesAMGF1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@MercedesAMGF1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RussianGP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#RussianGP<\/a> ?? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/F1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#F1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WlAL604IIG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/WlAL604IIG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Formula 1 (@F1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/F1\/status\/1045668273772269573?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">28 de septiembre de 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>MAIN PHOTO:<br \/>\n<a id=\"uTtUKViiQM5VxXkvyFK9jw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.in\/detail\/1042479974\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'uTtUKViiQM5VxXkvyFK9jw',sig:'XRHSkStZ-DhxFGCszzz_1se039puSMNyXmp07t6O-7I=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1042479974',caption: true ,tld:'in',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix weekend is underway. A thrilling fight between the top teams is expected to happen on Saturday and Sunday. Mercedes&#8216; Lewis Hamilton was the fastest driver on Friday, with a fastest lap of 1:33.385s. Valtteri Bottas was second in FP2 to his teammate Hamilton. The two Red Bull drivers, Max [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2449,"featured_media":6339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[424,68,76,121,554,117,1062],"class_list":["post-6324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","tag-2018-formula-one-season","tag-f1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-mercedes","tag-russian-grand-prix","tag-sebastian-vettel","tag-sochi"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2449"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}