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Looking at the GPS traces, Hamilton appears to have run slightly more wing than Russell - he takes time from him into all the slow corners and is slower at the end of all the straights. But it still looks a lower downforce set-up than either McLaren or, especially, Red Bull" (source The Race)
On FP3 HAM was always 1.2 to 1.5 sec/lap faster than RUS when it was raining, having at least 3kph top speed lower than him (319 to 322). Then at the half session, RUS had the upper hand when the track was drying. In those conditions, RUS was 2 tenths faster. Later it got raining again and the times dropped down.
In qualy we could see that RUS was faster in the straights, although when they arrived at the last chicane they were even Steven and it was down to RUS having a better exit (for attacking less the kerb on the last corner) and straightening out the car sooner it could put the power down quicker hence gained more time to the finish line:
So based on each driver's post qualy statements it seems that RUS is set on an attack S-M-S race, which could be more flexible had it be mixt conditions, with HAM running longer stints opting for an S/M-M/H one-stop race.
But both NOR and VER had setup their cars more for the race and it`ll be down to those drivers who are to take the win, had they not tangling again
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And last but not least RUS has a new ICE and the delta to an used one is down to at least 2 tenths per lap ...
