After an intriguing first practice session punctuated by a virtual and an actual safety car, the second practice session was topped by a common Mercedes double. Valtteri Bottas took the lead, 0.267s ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton, and 1.058 ahead of the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo.

The first practice session at the Sochi autodrom was very disrupted, and none of the drivers were able to do more than 16 laps. The second practice session was however more representative, as the drivers managed to do over 32 laps on average.

The two Mercedes topped the session, separated from the Two McLaren of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris respectively in P4 and P5, by the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo.

Sergio Perez looked strong, as he placed his RP20 ahead of Max Verstappen, a distant 7th, 1.529 off the mark of the pacesetter Bottas. His teammate Alex Albon didn’t do much better, as he brought home his RB16 in 12th place. Red Bull's performance was not surprising though, as Max Verstappen said on Thursday that he expected the likes of Renault and Racing Point to catch up with his team in Russia.

Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel completed that top-10 finish respectively in 8th, 9th and 10th.

Despite the number of laps run, the session was nonetheless eventful, with a handful of drivers - Hamilton, Verstappen, Stroll - spinning and locking up their tyres.

It’s the first time this season we are going to see the red-banded C5 soft tyres in use, and it will be interesting to see how that compound will play in the hands of team’s strategists, considering the low degradation type of the russian venue, and the long run into Turn 1 at the start.