Russian GP: Heavy rain hindered FP2
Williams driver Felipe Massa was the fastest during the second Free practice at the Sochi Autodrom on Friday afternoon. The Brazilian set the fastest lap time during the session which was struck by heavy rain.
If the conditions during the morning session were hard, in the afternoon the conditions became even harder as a near washout restricted the preparations the teams could make for the race on Sunday. However, another factor which made things tricky was the fact that some parts of the track were almost dry.
Only eight drivers set lap time in tricky conditions, while the others decided not to take any risk, expecting better conditions on Saturday morning. Six drivers decided not to venture out at all – Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado, Sauber’s Felipe Nasr and Marussia’s Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi, while six more opted just to take trial laps.
Massa’s 2:00.458 was far slower than the time set during the first free practice, but was good enough to be the best in this session. Sebastian Vettel was 0.201s behind, while Valtteri Bottas was third 0.230s behind.
Fortunately, the weather forecast for the weekend is better, without rain, so we can expect a more exciting training and qualifying session on Saturday and, of course, for the race on Sunday afternoon.
