Posted on 10th October 2014
This morning we saw Mercedes setting the pace in opening practice at the Russian Grand Prix, with Nico Rosberg fastest ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
With Formula One heading to the inaugural Russian GP this weekend, everyone's thoughts are still with Jules Bianchi, his family, friends and his colleagues as he remains in hospital in a critical yet stable condition. All of the drivers this weekend are carrying tributes to Jules on their cars as a mark of respect to him. Once again, everyone at Driving for Pleasure's thoughts and prayers are with him and his family at this sad and difficult time and keep fighting Jules, we are all with you.
Yesterday, it was announced that Lotus will be switching to Mercedes power for next season and ending their association with running Renault engines. This has been expected by many in the sport and it could be seen as another step needed by Lotus to get back to competitive ways once again. But even though the Mercedes engine deal has been secured, they still need to produce a better car than this year in order to make the most of the best engine on the grid currently.
It was announced before the start of FP1 that the Marussia F1 Team despite putting forward test and reserve driver Alexander Rossi onto the entry list for the Grand Prix weekend yesterday, they have decided to run with Max Chilton only as a mark of respect to Bianchi.
We also see Sauber's development driver Sergey Sirtokin make his first Formula One debut in a race weekend at his home race in Sochi as well as Toro Rosso rookie and newly announced Red Bull driver for next season Danill Kvyat taking part in his first home race in Formula One this weekend.
Nico Rosberg set the pace with a lap time of 1.42.311 ahead of his team mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton who was 0.065 seconds behind him. Heading into this weekend, Rosberg is ten points behind Hamilton in the championship and would seem so far to have got off to a good start this weekend. Jenson Button ended the session in a credible third place and was only 0.196 seconds behind the Mercedes drivers, despite having a spin at Turn 8 during the session.
Fernando Alonso finished the session in fourth place ahead of Kevin Magnussen in fifth place, Sergio Perez in sixth place and local driver Daniil Kvyat ending the session in seventh place. Kimi Raikkonen managed to finish in eighth place ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne in ninth place and Valtteri Bottas rounded off the top 10 finishers of the session, even though he experienced problems with issues surrounding a malfunctioning tyre blanket during the session.
Felipe Massa ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in twelfth place ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in thirteenth place, Sebastian Vettel in fourteenth place and Sebastian Vettel in fifteenth place. Adrian Sutil finished the session in sixteenth place ahead of Pastor Maldonado in seventeenth place and Romain Grosjean in eighteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Roberto Merhi finished the session in nineteenth place despite spinning on the track during the session ahead of his team mate Marcus Ericsson in twentieth and the sole Marussia of Max Chilton finishing in twenty-first place.
The classification of FP1 at the Russian Grand Prix is as follows below:-
Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1.42.311
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 0.065s
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 0.196s
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 0.409s
Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 0.715s
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 0.818s
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 0.853s
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 0.901s
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1.016s
Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1.231s
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1.430s
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1.510s
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1.665s
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 2.195s
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 2.314s
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 2.565s
Sergey Sirtokin Sauber-Ferrari 2.721s
Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 2.879s
Roberto Merhi Caterham-Renault 4.471s
Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 4.611s
Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 4.973s
Reporting by Sarah Jones
