"If you don't mind Mercedes, this has been quite a nice day for us"

Ferrari will hope that the worst is behind them in Russia. It could hardly be worse than in Monza and Mugello, and the fact that it was home racing made that even more painful. Friday at the Sochi Autodrom was therefore encouraging.

Both Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel were fast enough on the soft tyre for a place in the top ten and particularly in the long runs it looked good for Leclerc. Just like almost all the other teams, they suffered from balance problems and according to Vettel, it's best not to compare them to Mercedes.

"This was not such a bad Friday and our car seemed to perform a bit better than in recent races. There is still room to improve and find more lap time. However, leaving aside the top two in the standings, you can see this was a decent day for us," said the German.

Leclerc added: "We struggled quite a bit today, but our lap times were better than we expected. The main thing we have to focus on is the balance, because I think there's room to improve both in terms of performance and driveability."