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Felipe Massa
went fastest in the second free practice session using the Cinturato Blue
full wet tyre, while the quickest time of the day was set by Force India’s
Nico Hulkenberg in FP1 on the soft tyre.
This is the first Russian grand prix in which the P Zero Yellow soft and P
Zero Red supersoft tyres have been nominated, but the softest tyre in the
range is yet to be used: meaning that the team will have a busy morning
tomorrow.
The two free practice sessions in Russia were both disrupted for separate
reasons: a diesel spillage, which was covered in water, caused a half-hour
delay to the start of FP1 while there was continuous rain throughout FP2,
which meant that only seven drivers chose to set a time and some did not
come out at all.
For most of the FP2 session, the track was very wet in some places and much
drier in the others, making the tyre choice very complex. However, with rain
falling more intensely towards the end of the hour and a half session, the
track became extremely wet everywhere. As a result, the teams chose not to
run extensively, because better weather is predicted for the rest of the
weekend that will be more representative of race conditions.
In the morning, Force India topped the FP1 classification for the first
time, with Nico Hulkenberg using the soft tyre to go fastest on his final
lap of the session. Most drivers started FP1 on the intermediate tyre, to
cope with the damp patch on the track, but some also used the full wet. The
full wet was used from start to finish of FP2.
During the day, every single tyre in the range was used with the exception
of the supersoft. However, the weather and track conditions meant that no
representative lap times were set all day, with the times a long way off
last year. As a result, the teams will have plenty of work to do to prepare
strategy and assess wear and degradation rates in FP3 tomorrow.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport Director: “It was a largely
inconclusive day in Russia. However, that’s just part of racing and we’ve
seen before that less practice time can often lead to a more unpredictable
qualifying and race. The surface of the track has not evolved considerably
since last year, with the newness of the asphalt meaning that it’s not as
porous as more established venues, so the water remained on the track for a
while. It’s a shame for the fans that they didn’t get to see more running at
this fantastic circuit, but with better weather expected over the rest of
the weekend, we should be in for an exciting couple of days ahead. Tomorrow,
the teams will be left with a very big workload in FP3 as they prepare for
qualifying and the race in just one hour of what we expect to be dry
running.”
Pirelli facts of the day:
The original Russian Grand Prix was actually held 102 years ago, in St
Petersburg, won by local man Georgy Suvorin in a Benz. The race was run
again the following year, this time won by German driver Willy Scholl in
another Benz. The first project for a modern grand prix in Russia was
launched in the 1980s under the title of ‘The Grand Prix of the Soviet
Union’, planned for a circuit near Moscow, but this never came to fruition –
until the current Russian Grand Prix was inaugurated in 2014 in the Sochi
Olympic Park. |
FP1: FP2:
1. Hulkenberg 1m44.355s Soft 1. Massa 2m00.458s Wet
2. Rosberg 1m44.407s Soft 2. Vettel 2m00.659s Wet
3. Vettel 1m44.986s Soft 3. Bottas 2m00.688s Wet
Tyre statistics of the day:
Supersoft Soft Intermediate Wet
kms driven * 0 1071 298 473
sets used overall ** 0 20 18 14
highest number of laps ** 0 15 8 12
* The above number gives the total amount of kilometres
driven in FP1 and FP2 today, all drivers combined.
** Per compound, all drivers combined.
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