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In the first practice session at the Sochi Autodrome circuit today, Kimi Raikkonen topped the timesheets ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in a session that saw the drivers perfecting their set ups and seeing where they need to improve before FP2 and Qualifying tomorrow.
During FP1, we had a brief yellow-flag period early when Sergey Sirotkin stopped on track in Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault but was able to continue in the session. Also, Daniel
Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas both fell victim to the slippery track surface, with both drivers running off track (while Hamilton had a bigger scare) with Hamilton becoming the first driver to hit the newly-installed speed bumps at Turn 2 as he overshot the braking point.
In the second half of the sessiom, Force India driver Esteban Ocon's car shed its engine cover at Turn 2 and brought out the red flag. After the red flag was lifted, Sebastian Vettel was one of the first drivers to leave the pits as the action resumed, on super-softs, but a mistake on his first flying lap at Turn 13 meant he failed to improve despite setting the quickest time in the middle sector.
His second attempt did not go to plan either, spinning at Turn 16 after running too aggressively over the kerbs and managing to keep the car off the kerbs.
At the end of the session, Stoffel Vandoorne’s morning finished early, reporting “no power” as he cruised back to the pits in the closing minutes, but it was Kimi Raikkonen who was fastest with a lap time of 1:36.074 ahead of Valtteri Bottas in second place who was 0.045 seconds behind him and ahead of Lewis Hamilton in third place who was 0.607 seconds behind Raikkonen.
Max Verstappen finished the session in fourth place ahead of Sebastian Vettel in fifth place, Daniel Ricciardo in sixth place, Sergio Perez in seventh place, Felipe Massa in eighth place, Lance Stroll in ninth place and Esteban Ocon who rounded off the top ten finishers.
Daniil Kvyat ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Kevin Magnussen in twelfth place, Fernando Alonso in thirteenth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in fourteenth place and Jolyon Palmer in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Romain Grosjean ended the session in sixteenth place ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne in seventeenth place, Pascal Wehrlein in eighteenth place, Marcus Ericsson in nineteenth place and Sergey Sirtokin in twentieth place.
The classification of FP1 for the Russian GP is as follows:-
1. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.36.074
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 0.045
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 0.607s
4. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.100s
5. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1.156s
6. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.216s
7. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.383s
8. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.826s
9. Lance Stroll, Williams-Mercedes, 1.870s
10. Esteban Ocon, Force India-Mercedes, 1.991s
11. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 2.422s
12. Kevin Magnussen, Haas Ferrari, 2.673s
13. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 2.739s
14. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 2.902s
15. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 3.084s
16. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 3.459s
17. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren-Honda, 3.467s
18. Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber-Ferrari, 3.657s
19. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 4.005s
20. Sergey Sirotkin, Renault, No Time
Driving for Pleasure will be covering the Russian GP weekend with our practice, qualifying and race reports alongside the latest news.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
