Russian GP: Rosberg leads Mercedes 1-2 in opening practice

The championship leader beat Hamilton by over seven tenths of a second thanks to a lap of 1:38.127, set with supersoft tyres.

Sebastian Vettel was third for Ferrari, although a full second behind Rosberg, with teammate Kimi Raikkonen fourth in the second car from the Maranello squad.

Felipe Massa finished in fifth despite spending the majority of the session in the Williams garage after suffering a problem with the clutch.

The Williams drivers were split by the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, sixth ahead of Valtteri Bottas and local hero Daniil Kvyat in the second Red Bull.

Force India's Sergio Perez and Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz rounded out the top 10.

Sergey Sirotkin made his debut with the Renault team after being announced as a test driver earlier this week, the Russian replacing Kevin Magnussen.

Sirotkin finished in 13th, outpacing teammate Jolyon Palmer, who wound up down in 18th.

Red Bull's Aeroscreen protection system made its debut right at the start of the session, with Ricciardo completing the first installation lap with the device before returning to the pits to get it removed.

Mercedes' drivers were the first to complete timed laps, with Hamilton posting a 1:39.337 early on, outpacing Rosberg by less than a tenth of a second as their rivals took longer to appear on the timesheets.

The action intensified towards the end of the 30-minute mark, as Ricciardo moved up to third place, albeit a full second behind Hamilton.

McLaren's Jenson Button and Vettel then caused the first yellow flags of the session as they both spun at Turn 15 within a minute of each other.

The Ferrari driver lost control of his car again just seconds later as he spun once more, this time at Turn 17.

All that did not stop Rosberg from going quickest, the German setting a new benchmark with a 1:39.097 using the soft tyres.

Bottas moved up to third with a run on supersofts before the 45-minute mark, but the Williams driver still fell 0.7s short on the quickest time.

Rosberg's first run on supersoft - with 36 minutes to go - produced a 1:38.642 to put him nearly seven tenths ahead of Hamilton before he increased the gap to 0.722s on the following lap.

With 20 minutes to go, it was local hero Kvyat's turn to spin, the Russian losing the rear of his car at the penultimate corner.

Massa, who spent most of the session in the garage due to a clutch problem, finally appeared on the timesheets with less than 20 minutes remaining, but not before going off at Turn 2.

Manor's Rio Haryanto also had problems with his car and could not complete a timed lap until the final minutes of the session.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:38.127		32
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:38.849	+0.722	31
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:39.175	+1.048	19
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:39.332	+1.205	18
5	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:39.365	+1.238	14
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:39.650	+1.523	24
7	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:39.802	+1.675	34
8	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	1:40.218	+2.091	26
9	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:40.287	+2.160	22
10	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	1:40.654	+2.527	21
11	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:40.663	+2.536	19
12	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:40.771	+2.644	18
13	Sergey Sirotkin	Renault F1 Team	1:40.898	+2.771	24
14	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:41.085	+2.958	21
15	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:41.134	+3.007	22
16	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas F1 Team	1:41.238	+3.111	18
17	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	1:41.385	+3.258	20
18	Jolyon Palmer	Renault F1 Team	1:41.671	+3.544	25
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:41.962	+3.835	22
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing	1:42.483	+4.356	21
21	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing	1:42.687	+4.560	8
22	Alfonso Celis Jr.	Force India	1:43.432	+5.305	23