Is McLaren's Friday pace real?

The sight of a McLaren driver challenging for top spot on a Formula 1 timing screen has been rare during the past couple of seasons.

But Russia seems to agree with the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29 and Kevin Magnussen emerged as the second-fastest driver of the day having briefly topped the timesheets overall.

The fact he was almost nine tenths slower than pacesetter Lewis Hamilton proves that McLaren isn't suddenly going to be challenging the Silver Arrows, but the team's pace hints that it could be in the mix for best of the rest.

In terms of single-lap speed, with all drivers setting their best times of the day in the afternoon session using the one set of soft rubber each driver could use on Friday, the difference between McLaren, Williams and Ferrari is marginal.

Gary Anderson: "On track, the McLaren certainly looks absolutely fine, although I wouldn't say that there is anything spectacular about it.

"Through the 90-degree corners that make up much of the Sochi track, it's all about traction and McLaren has plenty of that. This makes it all about getting off the corner.

"Look all the way back to the Australian GP, when McLaren had two cars in the top three. The car was good there and this is similar.

"The timesheets suggest that McLaren should be best of the rest, but I didn't see a car that was really as strong as that. The Williams looks better, a little lively but that's the way that Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa drive it.

"Can McLaren hang in there? It's possible and I'm sure that the car will be decent, but it looks more like a fifth-, sixth-, seventh-placed car than third and fourth.

"But we have seen McLaren making progress with upgrades recently and perhaps we haven't seen the best of the car in dry conditions. Then again, it has a good simulator and is well-prepared for this weekend so could just have got a bit ahead of itself."

HOW IS McLAREN'S RACE PACE?

Bottas showed strong race pace © LAT

The long-run pace during Friday-afternoon practice painted a muddy picture, not least because the lack of tyre degradation meant that many drivers did longer qualifying simulation runs with three 'push' laps and warm-up laps in between.

But looking at seven-lap runs on soft rubber, where possible (Williams, Toro Rosso and Ferrari completed either runs of five or six counting laps, skewing the numbers a little), it shows that the field for 'best of the rest' is open.

The Williams looks strong, with Bottas lapping incredibly quickly in a run that only included five counting laps, but which was quicker overall than Hamilton, the faster of the Mercedes drivers.

Perhaps the surprise was Scuderia Toro Rosso, with Jean-Eric Vergne third fastest, again with a run limited to five counting laps.

McLaren is fourth fastest and very similar to Ferrari, which is potentially where you might expect it to be as the weekend progresses.

Average pace
1. Williams (Bottas), 1m44.166*
2. Mercedes (Hamilton) +0.250s
3. Toro Rosso (Vergne) +0.615s*
4. McLaren (Magnussen) +1.089s
5. Ferrari (Raikkonen) +1.256s*
6. Force India (Perez) +1.395s
7. Red Bull (Ricciardo) +1.601s
8. Lotus (Grosjean) +2.035s
9. Sauber (Sutil) +2.209s

* averages calculated over shorter runs

Gary Anderson: "Williams looks well-placed to be 'best of the rest' based on its long-run pace but the big surprise is that of the two Red Bull teams it's Toro Rosso, not the main team, that is looking stronger.

"The car looks honest on track and there's nothing wrong with it. It's a 'get up and go track' needing good traction off the corners and even though the Renault engine is not the best in the west - or the east, for that matter - it's good enough for Toro Rosso to look in reasonable shape. Certainly, the top 10 could be on offer.

"Red Bull itself seems to be unusually quiet. The car looks perfectly fine on track, but the laptimes haven't been there as yet. On top of that, Ricciardo also had some kind of power unit problem.

Red Bull is bracing for a difficult weekend © LAT

"It could be that Red Bull is playing it conservatively with old power units for practice and there will be more speed tomorrow. But I'd rather do a smaller number of laps at a representative speed than a larger number slower, because that completely transforms the car."

STRATEGY

Wear and degradation mean that a one-stop strategy, starting on the soft, which is around 1.6s faster than the medium, and then changing to the mediums for those who make Q3.

Pirelli did report some minor problems with blistering, with the right-front tyre heavily loaded in two corners, but it is waiting to see how the track evolves tomorrow.

TRACK IMPRESSIONS

Drivers were generally upbeat about the challenge of the track, which proved more tricky than a glance at its footprint suggested.

While a number of the corners are straightforward, there are three parts of the track where one corner follows another, requiring drivers to experiment with their approaches and lines.

Gary Anderson: "A lot of the corners are 90-degreeish, but there are some more interesting parts. Turn 3 is a long, fast left-hander that leads into a slower right.

"It was interesting to see the variation of lines there. Hamilton is mid-corner, the widest out there, but has the confidence to hang it out there and pull the car over for Turn 4.

"Rosberg is similar, but about a car width inside, while the Ferraris and the McLarens are tight on the inside kerb. There's probably a three-car width difference.

"The next interesting part is Turn 8/9. This is another quick section that allows drivers to run wide at the exit. Then you have the right/left at Turns 13/14, where drivers had to experiment with where to place the car exiting the right-hander to get the best approach to the long left-hander. There's enough there to make it interesting.

"It's a good facility, well-prepared with good run-off areas."

OVERTAKING

With most predicting a one-stop race, it does not seem likely that there will be a large amount of passing in the race.

The main opportunities will be the two DRS zones, one on the main straight on the run to Turn 2 and then the long run from Turn 10 to Turn 13.

Gary Anderson: "Passing will be difficult. There would be a chance on the back straight, but the kink at Turn 13 ruins that chance.

"It's fine to go flat on the racing line, but you'd be brave either to try to squeeze your car inside in that kink, or dive to the outside, with the DRS open to set up a move into Turn 13.

"But, ultimately, the track design is limited by the buildings and the available roadways, so it would have been difficult to do any better."