The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Vettel on song in Sochi practice
Sebastian Vettel has laid down the championship gauntlet to Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team after leading a Ferrari one-two in practice for the Russian Grand Prix.
Vettel, the 29-year-old German, arrived at the Sochi Autodrom in charge of his title battle with Hamilton by virtue of winning two of the three races staged so far this season.
And the four-time champion, and his resurgent Ferrari, team stamped their authority on proceedings by completing a practice double yesterday.
First Kimi Raikkonen went fastest in the morning session before Vettel led the way in the day’s second running at a sun-bathed Sochi.
The Ferrari driver, who heads Hamilton by seven points, posted a fastest lap of one minute and 34.120 at this 3.1-mile circuit to finish ahead of Raikkonen with Hamilton fourth.
The triple world champion was slower, not only to both the Ferrari drivers, but his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, too. Hamilton ended the 90-minute session a distant 0.709 seconds adrift of Vettel’s best time.
Certainly work to do then for the Briton then should he wish to return to winning ways here on Sunday, but yet another promising day for a Ferrari team starved of championship glory for more than a decade.
Dutch teenager Max Verstappen was fifth in the order, but he missed the final 20 minutes of the session after he stopped on track with a mechanical failure.
Felipe Massa, the Brazilian veteran called out of retirement by Williams following Bottas’s switch to Mercedes, appears to be revelling in his renaissance. He was seventh in the order yesterday.