Practice report
Formula 1 Russian GP
Russian GP: Vettel outpaces Verstappen by 0.050s in FP1
Sebastian Vettel set the pace in the opening practice session for the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix on Friday morning.
James Roberts
Edited: Sep 28, 2018, 9:42 AM
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The Ferrari driver was fractionally quicker than Max Verstappen's Red Bull.
The margin at the top of the timesheets between the two was just 0.050 seconds, both times being set on the hypersoft tyre at this 5.8km circuit on the shores of the Black Sea.
Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton was third quickest, 0.3s down on championship rival Vettel, but like his teammate Valtteri Bottas - who was fourth fastest - the Briton spent most of the 90-minute session running on the soft tyre.
Daniel Ricciardo was fifth overall, but had to sit out most of practice after he came into the pits early with smoke billowing from the rear of his Red Bull.
His mechanics took the floor off his car to investigate the problem.
Ricciardo will face a grid penalty for Sunday's race for power unit changes, along with his teammate Verstappen and three other drivers. They include the Toro Rosso duo of Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley and also Fernando Alonso (McLaren).
Friday morning's first practice session at Sochi took place in warm and overcast conditions without any major incident.
There was spin by Williams's Lance Stroll half an hour before the end of the session, while early on Lando Norris also looped his McLaren around at Turn 4.
Norris was one of four driver changes for the opening session of the weekend. Norris took over Alonso's seat, while local driver Artem Markelov was in for Carlos Sainz at Renault.
Esteban Ocon was sixth fastest for Force India ahead of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari and Kevin Magnussen's Haas.
Nico Hulkenberg was ninth in the timesheets but was forced to pit before the end of the session with an issue with his Renault.
Sauber's new signing for 2019, Antonio Giovinazzi stepped in for Marcus Ericsson while Nicholas Latifi replaced Sergio Perez at Force India for the 90-minute session.
Pos Driver Car / Engine Time Gap Laps 1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1'34.488 19 2 Max Verstappen Red Bull/TAG Heuer 1'34.538 0.050 22 3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1'34.818 0.330 23 4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1'34.999 0.511 28 5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/TAG Heuer 1'35.524 1.036 11 6 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1'35.663 1.175 24 7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1'35.696 1.208 19 8 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1'36.196 1.708 21 9 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1'36.274 1.786 18 10 Antonio Giovinazzi Sauber/Ferrari 1'36.712 2.224 22 11 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1'36.816 2.328 23 12 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 1'36.944 2.456 25 13 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 1'37.022 2.534 25 14 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 1'37.054 2.566 24 15 Artem Markelov Renault 1'37.183 2.695 22 16 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 1'37.187 2.699 27 17 Nicholas Latifi Force India/Mercedes 1'37.206 2.718 24 18 Sergey Sirotkin Williams/Mercedes 1'37.225 2.737 25 19 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 1'37.944 3.456 28 20 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1'39.137 4.649 13
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