Russian GP Friday practice
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By: Geoff Creighton
Summary
Status: Stopped
Driver, Team
Hamilton, Mercedes
Bottas, Mercedes
Verstappen, Red Bull
Ricciardo, Red Bull
Vettel, Ferrari
Raikkonen, Ferrari
Perez, Force India
Gasly, Toro Rosso
Ocon, Force India
Ericsson, Sauber
Hamilton, Mercedes
Bottas, Mercedes
Verstappen, Red Bull
Ricciardo, Red Bull
Vettel, Ferrari
Raikkonen, Ferrari
Perez, Force India
Gasly, Toro Rosso
Ocon, Force India
Ericsson, Sauber
So that's a wrap for our live coverage for Friday. We hope to see you back tomorrow for FP3 and qualifying, and in the meantime keep an eye out on Autosport and Motorsport.com for developing stories and reaction from the day of track action. 
Final FP2 results:
1 Hamilton
2 Bottas
3 Verstappen
4 Ricciardo
5 Vettel
6 Raikkonen
7 Perez
8 Gasly
9 Ocon
10 Ericsson
11 Magnussen
12 Sainz
13 Leclerc
14 Hulkenberg
15 Grosjean
16 Hartley
17 Alonso
18 Vandoorne
19 Sirotkin
20 Stroll
1 Hamilton
2 Bottas
3 Verstappen
4 Ricciardo
5 Vettel
6 Raikkonen
7 Perez
8 Gasly
9 Ocon
10 Ericsson
11 Magnussen
12 Sainz
13 Leclerc
14 Hulkenberg
15 Grosjean
16 Hartley
17 Alonso
18 Vandoorne
19 Sirotkin
20 Stroll
"Something might be broken, I touched the kerb, the car's pulling to the left a lot," Stroll reports. He had locked up badly at Turn 13.
After 22 laps on the ultrasofts, "the front has stabilised, the rear has taken a little hit - which helps the balance", according to Ricciardo.
The 'A class' cars, aside from Raikkonen, are all on ultrasofts with double-digit mileage on them and lapping in the high-1m39s/low-1m40s margin. Raikkonen is on fresher softs and is currently a bit quicker.
There's a lot of noisy data in the race runs, but the ultrasoft unsurprisingly looks to be holding up a lot better. The top three teams will surely try to make Q3 on the purple-walled tyre.
"Main deg is on the front left at the moment," reports Ricciardo, who is running 10-lap-old ultrasofts.
Replays show Vettel has had a big spin on his worn hypersofts at Turn 13. No damage, and he's now discarded the tyres in the pits.
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"Nico, we're thinking of 18 turns down on the front wing for when you stop," Hulkenberg is told. The response is excellent: "Talk to me in my money. We never talk turns."
"Stick with it, Max - has it stabilised or is it getting a little bit worse?" Verstappen is asked. Responds that it's not "easy to drive".
"The hyper has gone off into the high 40s," Hamilton is told, from an initial 1m39s range. Bottas' most recent lap was actually in the 1m41s.
There's a few decently-sized gaps between teammate pairings after the qualifying-trim runs. The one between Gasly and Hartley is biggest, at 0.887s, while Alonso and Magnussen are also over half a second ahead of their teammates.
As the race simulations kick off in earnest, Bottas, Vettel and Raikkonen are circulating on hypersofts, while the two Red Bulls and Hamilton have fitted the ultrasoft compound.
Ocon is still on a qualifying simulation and improves his laptime - but comes up a hundredth short of snatching the 'Class B' benchmark from Gasly.
The midfield race to make Q3 - assuming any of those teams actually want to make Q3 and start on the hypersoft - should be extremely close tomorrow. There's just over three tenths separating seventh-placed Gasly and Hulkenberg in 13th.
Current order:
1 Hamilton
2 Bottas, +0.199s
3 Verstappen, +0.442s
4 Ricciardo, +0.459s
5 Vettel, +0.543s
6 Raikkonen, +1.003s
7 Gasly, +1.752s
8 Ocon
9 Ericsson
10 Magnussen
11 Sainz
12 Leclerc
13 Hulkenberg
14 Grosjean
15 Hartley
16 Alonso
17 Vandoorne
18 Perez
19 Sirotkin
20 Stroll
1 Hamilton
2 Bottas, +0.199s
3 Verstappen, +0.442s
4 Ricciardo, +0.459s
5 Vettel, +0.543s
6 Raikkonen, +1.003s
7 Gasly, +1.752s
8 Ocon
9 Ericsson
10 Magnussen
11 Sainz
12 Leclerc
13 Hulkenberg
14 Grosjean
15 Hartley
16 Alonso
17 Vandoorne
18 Perez
19 Sirotkin
20 Stroll
Bottas does a practice start at the exit of pitlane, and will presumably now begin a hypersoft race run.
The qualifying simulations look more or less over. Verstappen has been in the pits, and is now back out on ultrasofts.
Leclerc has gone very wide at Turn 5. "I tried to use the kerb for braking", he explains. It didn't work at all, leading him to overshoot the corner and leaving his left front tyre covered with paint.
Ricciardo and Hamilton are still trying for a better hypersoft laptime, and Hamilton pulls it off! 1m33.385s.
Gasly usurps Ericsson as best of the rest in seventh, as the Swede is told his second sector is "excellence".
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