Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the second practice for the Russian Grand Prix, as Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel’s afternoon was cut short due to gearbox trouble, which later led to a five-place grid penalty for the four-time champion.

Vettel was one of the first drivers to take to the track at the start of the 90-minute afternoon session at the Sochi Autodrom and he quickly set an early benchmark with a time of 1:38.921 that was just five thousandths of a second quicker than the first flying lap of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.

Vettel’s time held until 17 minutes into the session when Hamilton, who had struggled over his early laps popped up with a time of 1:38.311, 0.610s faster than the Ferrari driver.

Rosberg then improved to briefly dislodge Vettel but the German quickly reclaimed top spot with a time 0.076s up on the Mercedes pair.

That was to be Vettel’s last action of the session, however. On his next tour the German slowed and eventually ground to a halt on the start-finish straight. He was quickly on the radio to tell his team that he had “lost electronics”. His car was recovered to the garage but he would play no further part in the session.

Vettel’s woes deepened when the team was later forced into a gearbox change on his car which means he’ll take a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race.

“It is a bit of a shame, as we are now missing quite a few laps especially for the long runs and in the race trim,” commented the German. “This would have gotten us much more information on how competitive we would be on Sunday.

“Kimi had to do the homework for the whole team and that was not too bad, as we roughly know what to expect, and for sure we can also learn from what other people did.”

Forty minutes into the session Hamilton reclaimed P1 with a lap of 1:37.583 that was 0.652s faster than Vettel's effort.

Rosberg, though had hit traffic and he contented himself with third on the timesheet two tenths of a second behind Vettel as he returned to the pit lane for a period before emerging with half an hour left on the clock on a set of used supersoft tyres. Hamilton, meanwhile, stayed in the garage as Mercedes worked on set-up changes on his car.

Behind Rosberg, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen took fourth spot with a time just over three tenths of the Mercedes driver.

Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo set the afternoon’s fifth fastest time, 1.5s behind Hamilton’s benchmark and a tenth clear of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas. Daniil Kvyat was seventh in the second Red Bull.

The top 10 order was completed by McLaren’s Jenson Button in eighth place ahead of Williams’ Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso in the McLaren.

2016 Russian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Lewis Hamilton  Mercedes 1:37.583   30
2 Sebastian Vettel  Ferrari 1:38.235 +0.652 10
3 Nico Rosberg  Mercedes 1:38.450 +0.867 37
4 Kimi Raikkonen  Ferrari 1:38.793 +1.210 35
5 Daniel Ricciardo  Red Bull Racing 1:39.084 +1.501 34
6 Valtteri Bottas  Williams 1:39.185 +1.602 42
7 Daniil Kvyat  Red Bull Racing 1:39.193 +1.610 32
8 Jenson Button  McLaren 1:39.196 +1.613 31
9 Felipe Massa  Williams 1:39.289 +1.706 38
10 Fernando Alonso  McLaren 1:39.400 +1.817 30
11 Carlos Sainz Jr.  Toro Rosso 1:39.465 +1.882 37
12 Max Verstappen  Toro Rosso 1:39.501 +1.918 30
13 Nico Hulkenberg  Force India 1:39.795 +2.212 31
14 Sergio Perez  Force India 1:39.867 +2.284 38
15 Kevin Magnussen  Renault F1 Team 1:40.193 +2.610 41
16 Romain Grosjean  Haas F1 Team 1:40.260 +2.677 24
17 Esteban Gutierrez  Haas F1 Team 1:40.508 +2.925 26
18 Jolyon Palmer  Renault F1 Team 1:40.688 +3.105 37
19 Felipe Nasr  Sauber 1:40.740 +3.157 31
20 Rio Haryanto  Manor Racing 1:41.080 +3.497 38
21 Pascal Wehrlein  Manor Racing 1:41.148 +3.565 23
22 Marcus Ericsson  Sauber 1:41.652 +4.069 29