What we learned from Friday at the Russian Grand Prix

We may have learned as much about the Japanese Grand Prix during practice for the Russian Grand Prix as we did for the weekend ahead in Sochi.

Ferrari appear to be in the driving seat for success once again, as they look for a fourth win on the spin.

Max Verstappen may have ended the day as the quickest driver on-track, but an impending five-place grid penalty will take him out of contention, regardless of qualifying performance.

Mercedes were off the pace in both sessions, and their record of winning every race in Russia since its introduction to the calendar looks under serious threat.

Leclerc leading the way

With three pole positions in a row behind him, Leclerc looked as comfortable as anyone on the circuit, taking top spot in FP1 and coming within three tenths of Verstappen's leading time in the second session.

The Monegasque was also impressive in long-run performance, matching the times of Verstappen as the Ferrari and Red Bulls looked the most comfortable on the medium tyres, likely to be the main race tyre.

Leclerc took an impressive seventh place for Sauber last year, which featured some impressive overtaking manoeuvres.

At this stage, however, it appears unlikely he'll need to pull many out this weekend.

Mercedes and Hamilton off-colour

The Silver Arrows were the third-quickest team in each session and look set for more frustration, having missed out on the podium in Singapore a week ago.

Red Bull's penalties will likely play into their hands, although there seems to be little Mercedes can do to keep up with Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton was slower than Valtteri Bottas in each session and his day was almost ruined by a slow-moving Alexander Albon at Turn 3 in FP2. Luckily the five-time world champion's wits were sharp and he avoided a huge incident.

With Bottas having won here in 2017 and taken pole last year, Hamilton will need to dig deep to avoid ceding ground to the Finn in the standings come Sunday.

Ups and downs for Honda

Verstappen's FP2 performance was backed up by Pierre Gasly going sixth-fastest as the new engines brought to Sochi by Honda look to be delivering.

Of course, the move has been made to bolster performance at Suzuka in a fortnight in particular and Honda looks well-set to score points in its home race for the first time since returning to F1.

Daniil Kvyat ran into issues in both sessions to temper some of the excitement. He reported anti-stall kicking in when running over kerbs, perhaps a similar issue to Verstappen suffering power outages due to a safety mode kicking in when getting wheelspin in Italy recently.

Luckily for the Russian, his engine was not damaged, although he will start at the back of the grid, having taken several new power unit components.

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