Hamilton surprised by gap to Red Bull: 'Must be even worse for them'.

Mercedes showed once again on Friday in Sochi that they are supreme this season. Despite looking supreme, Lewis Hamilton has admitted it hasn't been the best start to the weekend.

"I didn't have the impression that I was very fast today," said Hamilton to Crash.net and others. "The grip level is pretty bad. You slide around a lot. So I am surprised by this hole. It must be even worse for those behind us. The more grip there is on the track, the smaller the differences will be tomorrow."

Hamilton's fight against Bottas

The gap to the rest of the field was large, but his teammate looks a formidable opponent this weekend. Valtteri Bottas was faster in both sessions and his good reputation at the Sochi Autodrom seems to be true.

"I am a bit behind in the first and second sector. Sector three was fine. So I still have to sort everything out and make progress, both in terms of driving and tuning. There is a lot of work to be done from one day to the next, as usual. The car is working well."