Mercedes was too fast for Max Verstappen in the first and second free practice, so the decision was made to take a grid penalty and install a completely new Honda engine. Also when we look at the long runs of Verstappen, it seems to have been the best choice. In terms of race pace, the German racing team has the upper hand on the Sochi circuit. Bottas fastest on mediums Bottas was able to achieve an average time of 1:39.767 with one set of mediums over nine laps (spread out in runs of four and five laps due to the red flag caused by Antonio Giovinazzi), according to Auto Motor und Sport. With that, he was four tenths faster than Verstappen. The Dutch driver drove ten laps and averaged a...
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