So far, Mercedes is unbeatable at the Sochi circuit. The team has been unbeatable at the Russian Grand Prix since 2014. Can Red Bull Racing change that with the changing weather conditions this weekend?
"We had a pretty good balance to start with today and were able to put in decent times on all tyre compounds. We've often struggled on the Soft tyre this year but today it seemed to work well", Andrew Shovlin says in an official Mercedes press release. Valtteri Bottas was the fastest man today, but Lewis Hamilton followed on P2.
Finding the right set-up a challenge
"Our long run performance was OK, but we've not got the balance quite right so there's a bit of work to do there overnight." The weather conditions make this weekend very interesting, as tomorrow the forecast is mainly rain, while on Sunday it will be dry.
"The forecast looks very wet for tomorrow, especially in the morning but we're expecting dry conditions for the race. That's going to give us an interesting compromise to deal with, finding a setup that works well in a wet qualifying but also has good long run pace in the dry. Overall though a reasonable start to the weekend", Shovlin concludes.