Hamilton: 'No guarantee of a win at Sochi'

In the three Russian Grand Prix held to date, a Mercedes has led every lap at Sochi. But Lewis Hamilton fears that this might all be about to change this weekend.

Ferrari were comfortably faster than anyone else in Friday's practice session, leaving Hamilton acutely aware there's work to be done.

"There is no such thing as a guarantee for winning, not even here," he told the official Formula 1 website.

"If we win this weekend then it will be because we have worked very hard for it," he added. "Not because of the opinion that people have that this is a ‘Mercedes track.' We have to earn it fair and square.

"Obviously from what we’ve seen today we have to find time on the track for tomorrow," he admitted.

"We have to find some changes that will help us get back to the strength that we had, and that Ferrari obviously has at this very moment. I am sure that we will achieve it."

Ferrari stays in charge in Sochi second practice

Hamilton also struggled for pace in Bahrain, but he said that the problems in Sochi were quite different.

"This is a different track to Melbourne and Bahrain, so everything is blown wide open for Sunday," he said.

"One of our paramount aims will be to get more temperature into the rear tyres," he continued. "This track has a special tarmac where tyre degradation is not so much the issue - getting the temperature into the rear tyres is.

"After analysing the data this evening we will discuss how to go about the setup We definitely have to change things to be able to fight back tomorrow. And more importantly, on Sunday."

GALLERY: All the pictures from Friday in Sochi

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.