Ferrari continued its early domination at the Sochi Autodrom as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen led a comfortable 1-2 for the team in second practice for the Russian Grand Prix.

After Raikkonen topped the opening session this morning, Ferrari continued to show strong pace with Vettel taking top spot, just under three tenths clear of his team-mate.

The Ferraris were nearly seven-tenths clear of third-place man Valtteri Bottas. Bottas was once again ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton with the Finn boasting a strong record in Russia, finishing on the podium and nearly clinching pole position in 2014 and was taken out by Raikkonen in 2015 when running third in the latter stages.

Mercedes has won every race in Russia since its inaugural outing in 2014 but Ferrari looks to be ahead in both qualifying and race trim going into tomorrow’s qualifying session.

Red Bull was once again the third fastest team on Friday with Max Verstappen setting the fifth fastest time ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. Verstappen stopped out on track with 15 minutes remaining on the clock.

Three-tenths of a second separated Felipe Massa, Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez in the midfield which looks as tight as ever.

Clive Mason/Getty Images Sport

Esteban Ocon was 2.534s off Vettel’s benchmark in 11th ahead of Fernando Alonso, Jolyon Palmer and Romain Grosjean, who continued to struggle with the new brakes on his Haas.

Carlos Sainz ended FP2 within three seconds of Vettel in 15th ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne, Daniil Kvyat and Lance Stroll, who did not set a time on the ultra-soft tyre. Marcus Ericsson was slowest of all 20 runners, 3.699s off the pace.