Lewis Hamilton ended the second practice session on top of the timesheets as Mercedes streaked well clear of rivals Ferrari. Hamilton's fastest time read a 1:33.385, which was two-tenths of a second quicker than teammate Valtteri Bottas in P2.

Despite topping the opening session in Sochi on Friday morning, Ferrari only ended the session in fifth and sixth place. Sebastian Vettel's time was over half a second down on Hamilton's pace-setting lap, while Kimi Raikkonen was a further half a second off the pace.

The Red Bull duo slotted in between both Mercedes' and Ferraris. Max Verstappen headed his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, with very little to separate the two energy drink-backed drivers.

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Sergio Perez ended the session as the 'best of the rest' driver, setting the seventh fastest time in the session. Pierre Gasly, who is running with Honda's upgraded engine this weekend, finished in eighth place behind Perez, with Esteban Ocon and Marcus Ericsson rounding out the top ten.

Haas failed to make it into the top ten as they attempt to catch up to Renault for fourth place in the championship. Kevin Magnussen ended the session in eleventh, ahead of Renault's Carlos Sainz, who will be leaving for McLaren next year.

The second Sauber of Charles Leclerc was thirteenth while Nico Hulkenberg trailed the Ferrari bound driver. Behind the German was Romain Grosjean, who was confirmed this morning to be racing with Haas alongside Kevin Magnussen for 2019.

Brendon Hartley was sixteenth, heading the McLaren duo of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne. Williams ended the session as slowest, with local favourite Sergey Sirotkin ahead of teammate Lance Stroll.

Action from Sochi resumes on Saturday at 12:00 local time with the final practice session before the weekend heats up with qualifying for Sunday's race at 15:00 local time.