Lewis Hamilton expressed satisfaction with his pace during practice for the Russian Grand Prix, particularly off the back of last year’s performance.
Hamilton finished a low-key fourth at the 2017 running of the event, having qualified in the same position, around half a second adrift of his opponents.
The Mercedes driver was third in the opening session on Friday, having run Softs compared to the Hypersofts used by pacesetter Sebastian Vettel, but moved clear later in the afternoon.
In full: Russian GP FP2 results
Hamilton was 0.199s clear of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the second session, as title rival Vettel was only fifth, half a second down, with the Red Bull drivers in between.
“Sochi has been one of the weaker circuits for me in the past, particularly last year,” said Hamilton.
“So I've done a lot of work to understand the balance and see where I can improve to try and rectify this – today has been good in that sense.
“From every race we're learning more and more and particularly the last few races have helped us to really gauge which foot we need to start on for the weekend.
“We've brought more upgrades this weekend; there's so much work going on at home.
“It's just really encouraging when you come to a race and you get an upgrade, knowing that this late in the season we're also already working on next year's car – it motivates me to get the best out of everything.
“It's been a good day for us, so let's hope that it continues tomorrow.”
2017 victor Bottas nonetheless warned that Ferrari is likely to pose a stronger threat on Saturday.
“The initial feeling of the car was good; however, there's still work to do,” he said.
“It's so difficult to get a perfect set-up for each corner on this track, because the balance is so different throughout the lap.
“We brought some aerodynamic updates to the car that worked well and added more grip; we'll see if that's going to be enough for the weekend.
“It seemed like Ferrari weren't really showing everything they have, so they will probably be stronger tomorrow. I think it's going to be very close, so we'll have to keep pushing.”
