Summary

  • Rosberg on pole, Hamilton 10th after engine failure

  • Hamilton could drop further down grid depending on investigation and engine penalties

  • Bottas 2nd, Raikkonen 3rd, Massa 4th, Ricciardo 5th

  • Vettel 7th after grid penalty

  • Race coverage on Sunday from 11:30 BST

Live Reporting

Chris Osborne

  1. 'Hamilton tough to beat'

    Andrew Benson
    Chief F1 writer

    “Lewis Hamilton arrived in Sochi as a man on a mission - to start eating into team-mate Nico Rosberg’s championship lead. And the weekend has got off to a perfect start. There were some spins but he ended Friday looking imperious, quickest on both soft and super-soft tyres in practice two.

    "The picture was skewed by the fact Rosberg had not completed a decent lap on the super-soft tyres, but that in itself was another thing demonstrating Hamilton’s apparent early grip on the weekend. The real business starts on Saturday. But the early signs are that if Hamilton has the smooth weekend he craves, he will be tough to beat.”

  2. Second practice recap

    HamiltonGetty Images

    While it was a day to forget for Vettel, it was a promising one for Lewis Hamilton.

    Looking to end a six-race winning streak of his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, the world champion was able to rattle off a couple of super quick laps on the super softs to top yesterday's times.

    Here are the final standings in brief, but if you want the full shebang, click this link here.

    1 HAM 2 VET 3 ROS 4 RAI 5 RIC 6 BOT 7 KVY 8 BUT 9 MAS 10 ALO 11 SAI 12 VST 13 HUL 14 PER 15 MAG 16 GRO 17 GUT 18 PAL 19 NAS 20 HAR 21 WEH 22 ERI    

  3. Vettel's headache

    VettelAP

    And so, on to qualifying day at the Russian GP, and first it's final practice, which gets under way at 10:00 BST.

    The big news, in case you missed it, is that Sebastian Vettel will receive a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

    The gearbox was damaged when he made contact with Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen on the first lap of the China GP.

    The German's car stopped on the final turn during yesterday's second practice, but that was down to an unrelated electronics problem.

    All in all, a cracking weekend for Seb so far.

  4. Remembering Roland

    RatzenbergerGetty Images

    Tomorrow will mark 22 years to the day that Ayrton Senna died during the San Marino GP - and we will give that due consideration.

    But today, allow yourself to remember the life of Roland Ratzenberger, who was killed the day before Senna, during qualifying.

    The Austrian's career may not have been as illustrious as his Brazilian counterpart, but the Simtek driver's death was as much of a driving force for the advances in safety around head and neck protection.

    A sobering thought when we consider the debate around halos and aeroscreens.