Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in second Russian GP practice

Lewis Hamilton headed up a one-two finish for Mercedes in second practice for the Russian Grand Prix on Friday afternoon, as Formula 1 title rival Sebastian Vettel ended the session more than half a second off the pace.

After seeing Vettel lead for Ferrari in FP1 at the Sochi Autodrom earlier in the day, Hamilton and Mercedes responded in convincing fashion as they surged to the front of the pack, the Briton setting a fastest lap time of 1m33.385s on the Hypersoft tyre.

Hamilton's effort - set on his second push lap on the Hypersofts - was good enough to give him P1 by almost two-tenths of a second from Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas as the German marque secured a one-two finish.

Red Bull finished as the next-best team as Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo took third and fourth place respectively, split by just 0.017 seconds in the final classification. Ricciardo completed the session without any issues, having missed half of FP1 earlier in the day after a precautionary check on his gearbox due to a possible issue.

Hamilton's chief title rival Vettel wound up fifth in the final standings, finishing half a second adrift, as well as suffering a spin late in the session. Vettel struggled to find space on-track at times during his long run, prompting him to vent his frustration about the traffic via team radio.

Vettel's teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, finished more than one second slower than Hamilton in sixth place, with Sergio Perez following in P7 for Force India as the leading midfield driver as he returned to the cockpit after missing FP1.

Pierre Gasly took eight for Toro Rosso, with Esteban Ocon taking ninth in the second Force India. Marcus Ericsson completed the top 10 for Sauber.

Kevin Magnussen took P11 for Haas ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc, while Nico Hulkenberg took 14th for Renault. Romain Grosjean and Brendon Hartley both struggled to match their teammates for pace, finishing down in 15th and 16th respectively.

McLaren's struggles continued as Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne finished 17th and 18th respectively, split by over half a second, while Williams propped up the running order with Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll filling out the bottom two positions.