Lewis Hamilton says he has “a lot of work to do” to get on terms with the pace of Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Val🎃tteri Bottas at the Russian G🅘rand Prix.

Hamilton finished a lowly 19th during a difficult opening 🌳practice session, before recovering to take second in FP2, 0.267s d🍃own on Bottas’ session-leading time as the Finn completed a Friday practice sweep.

The Briton, who hol🔜ds a 55-point championship lead over Bottas heading into this weekend’s race at Sochi, acknowledged he has more performance to find if he is to beat his teammate to pole position for the fifth race in a row.

“I ꦆdidn’t feel like I was particularly quick today,” Hamilton conceded after second practice.

“It didn’t start off particularly good andཧ P1 was pretty𝓰 poor. I had a lock-up in Turn 1 on the Soft tyre and then went out on the Hard tyre and completely destroyed the tyres. P1 was scrapped.

“P2 started off better, I’m just down a bit in the first and second sector, but the last one was nice. I haven’t put them all tog♎ether 𒈔yet and it’s a work in progress.

“There’s some things I need to improve from the driver’s side and set-up wise. If you don’t take any steps forward i♔n first practice you are starting from behind in the second one.

“Nonetheless, the🐼 car has been performing really well. I’ve got a lot of work to do overnight, bu💦t it’s nothing new.”

The Mer🎉cedes duo were in a league of their own in the afternoon as third-placed man Daniel Ricciardo finished a full second off Bottas’ benchmark in his Renault.

Asked if he was surprised by t▨he margin to the rest of the pack, Hamilton replied: “Yeah because even for us it doesn’t really feel that great out t🥂here.

“The grip is poor, there’s a lot of sliding so I’m surprised to see that gap. It must be even𝔍 worse꧙ for those behind.

“But the track will grip up an༺d maybe it will close up t🍌omorrow.”