Vettel and Ferrari trail Hamilton and Mercedes in Sochi

Ferrari appear to have catching up to do if Sebastian Vettel is to revive his championship hopes at the Russian Grand Prix after the Scuderia lagged way behind the pace of Mercedes in Friday's second practice session at the Sochi Autodrom.

Vettel topped the timesheets in Friday's first session, but with a softer compound of tyres, with a three tenths gap to Lewis Hamilton suggesting that the Mercedes held the greater pace.

That was seemingly confirmed in FP2 as Hamilton set the fastest time with a lap of one minute 33.385 seconds.

Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas was in second, a shade under two tenths adrift, with both Red Bulls between the Silver Arrows and Ferrari cars.

FP2 CLASSIFICATION: A strong session for @MercedesAMGF1 #RussianGP ???????? #F1 pic.twitter.com/WlAL604IIG — Formula 1 (@F1) September 28, 2018

Neither Max Verstappen or Daniel Ricciardo are likely to be in the mix come raceday, however, as they will start from the back of the grid thanks to engine penalties.

Vettel's best qualifying-simulation lap clocked 1:33.928, more than half a second off Hamilton's benchmark, and if that is an accurate representation of the true pace then the 40-gap deficit Vettel has to his rival is likely to grow.

A theme of recent races has been Vettel's frustrations with Ferrari's strategies through the weekend, and it once again came to the fore as he complained about traffic through his long-run preparation, having earlier spun while finding the limits.

Pierre Gasly was eighth-quickest running an upgraded Honda power unit in the Toro Rosso – which will potentially light up the eyes of Red Bull as they look ahead to 2019.

McLaren and Williams made up the bottom four places on the timesheets as the famous teams continue to suffer dreadful campaigns.

MORE: Alonso among five drivers with grid penalties in Russia