Russian Grand Prix practice pacesetter Sebastian Vettel says he expects Mercedes to be “strong” across the remainder of the weekend, despite Ferrari comfortably leading the way on Friday.
Kimi Räikkönen fronted the opening practice session before Vettel moved to the top on Friday afternoon, heading a Ferrari 1-2, as lead Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas finished 0.670s back in third.
Vettel, though, remains wary of Mercedes at the Sochi Autodrom, where the reigning World Champions have yet to be beaten in either qualifying of the race.
“I think they will be fine, it’s a circuit that suits them so they will be strong tomorrow,” Vettel said of Mercedes’ pace.
“I don’t want to make it personal but I think last year people expected Williams to be the fastest after the Friday if I remember right, and it turned out that Mercedes was the fastest.
“That’s how sometimes you can be misled, there’s a lot of things we can play with in the car, fuel loads, engine modes, so at this track especially there's a lot of things you can show or not show.
“The most important [thing] is we talk about ourselves, our balance, and I was able to improve, so I’m reasonably happy.”
Räikkönen finished 0.263s behind his team-mate at the conclusion of Friday’s running, with the front runners all clocking their best laps on the Ultra Soft tyres.
“It’s been quite a nice Friday and things were running smoothly, I’m happy with the car so it’s obviously more fun like that,” he said.
“We started well, I’m quite happy with how things ran today so I’ll try to make a good day tomorrow and go from there.”
