Sochi, FP1: Räikkönen quickest in opening practice session for Russian Grand Prix
Like Hamilton, Vettel had a scrappy session
Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen set the pace in the opening practice session for this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix, beating Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas by 0.045 at the Sochi Autodrom. Bottas’ team-mate Lewis Hamilton was third, more than half a second off the pace.
After running on soft tyres early on, Räikkönen’s time of 1:36.074 came midway through the session, with the Finn bolting on a set of supersofts to better the earlier efforts of the Mercedes drivers on the same compounds.
Hamilton had made the early running but it was Bottas who best exploited the red-banded rubber for Mercedes. While Hamilton had a ragged session that included a number of off-track moments Bottas steered his W08 to a time of 1:36.119. Hamilton ended the session 0.562 behind his team-mate.
Fourth place on the timesheet went to Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, who jumped ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel late in the session with a supersoft time of 1:37.174.
Like Hamilton, Vettel had a scrappy session, with a spin at Turn 16 midway through the 90 minutes being the most lurid of a number of moments where the German explored the outer limits of grip on the smooth and rarely used surface
Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull also struggled for grip, running off track at one point, though the Australian eventually finished sixth ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez.
The Mexican ended the session four places and almost six tenths of a second clear of team-mate Esteban Ocon. The Frenchman brought out the red flags, too, when his car’s engine cover became dislodged at Turn 2.
Eighth and ninth places in the session were taken by the Williams pair of Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll with the Brazilian edging the Canadian by just over four hundredths of a second.
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:36.074 | 19 |
02 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes AMG | 1:36.119 | 24 |
03 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes AMG | 1:36.681 | 23 |
04 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Tag Heuer | 1:37.174 | 19 |
05 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:37.230 | 19 |
06 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Tag Heuer | 1:37.290 | 19 |
07 | Sergio Perez | Force India Mercedes | 1:37.457 | 29 |
08 | Felipe Massa | Williams Mercedes | 1:37.900 | 29 |
09 | Lance Stroll | Williams Mercedes | 1:37.944 | 30 |
10 | Esteban Ocon | Force India Mercedes | 1:38.065 | 28 |
11 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso Renault | 1:38.496 | 17 |
12 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 1:38.747 | 23 |
13 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren Honda | 1:38.813 | 16 |
14 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso Renault | 1:38.976 | 17 |
15 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault F1 | 1:39.158 | 16 |
16 | Romain Grosjean | Haas Ferrari | 1:39.533 | 17 |
17 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren Honda | 1:39.541 | 19 |
18 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber Ferrari | 1:39.731 | 21 |
19 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber Ferrari | 1:40.079 | 20 |
20 | Sergey Sirotkin | Renault F1 | -:—.--- | 2 |