Much more to come from Stroll at Sochi

It was very much a training day on Friday for Williams F1's newest recruit, Canadian driver Lance Stroll.

While his more experienced team mate Felipe Massa knuckled down to a conventional programme in free practice, for Stroll it was more a case of simply getting used to the unusual Sochi Autodrom venue.

"For Lance, the focus was on learning the circuit," confirmed the team's chief technical officer Paddy Lowe. "This is a track he hasn’t driven before, and he made good progress through the day."

"It is a bit strange here," Stroll admitted. "It is not one timed lap and then the tyre goes away, it builds up a lot. We need to figure out how to deliver the lap time when the tyre is at its best.

"There is still improvement to come, and that is generally from my side. It's my first time here and I am just getting the car set up the way I want.

Ferrari stays in charge in Sochi second practice

Stroll ended FP2 19th fastest, but there was good reason for that apparent lack of pace compared with the rest of the field.

"I didn't use the ultrasofts as I am saving them for tomorrow," he explained. "That will give me a much better feeling and I will try to get in some good runs.

"We have not decided our strategy for the race yet. It is low grip here and the degradation doesn't look high, so we will have to see what approach is best."

"We chose to run two sets of super soft tyres with [Lance] in FP2," Lowe elaborated. "It gave him a more consistent tyre with one less variable. We have lots of interesting data in terms of tyre performance and endurance.

"There is still a lot of work to do tonight. We look forward to competing strongly tomorrow."

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.