Valtteri Bottas lead a Mercedes one-two after going two tenths faster than teammate Lewis Hamilton in first practice for the Russian Grand Prix. The Finn set a 34.427 which put him ahead of Hamilton, while Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen was third a hundredth behind his championship rival.<\/p>\n
Mercedes have always gone well in Sochi, with Bottas often proving to be an equal match for Hamilton at a circuit that suits his driving style. Bottas has often looked a very strong driver in Sochi, beating Hamilton a few times at this high downforce circuit.<\/p>\n
Red Bull think going into this weekend they can be closer to Mercedes than they have managed in the past. Verstappen had looked to be a second behind Bottas before a final soft run towards the end of the session, closing to just over a hundredth of Hamilton.<\/p>\n
However, he has a three-place grid penalty on Sunday for his role in the crash with Hamilton last time out in Monza, having been found “predominantly to blame” for causing his crash with Hamilton during the last race in Italy. Red Bull have said they are considering whether to fit his car with a new engine, which would mean he would join Leclerc at the back of the grid.<\/p>\n
Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc was fourth fastest almost seven-tenths off the out right pace, but he was seven-tenths faster than his former teammate Sebastian Vettel who was fifth. The Monacan however will start from last after taking a fourth power unit this season.<\/p>\n
The weather forecast for Saturday with rain predicted led to mixed up run plans with the likes of Leclerc going out on softs, while his teammate Carlos Sainz used the hard tyres. The Spaniard eventually finishing the session seventh three hundredths behind his teammate.<\/p>\n
McLaren\u2019s Lando Norris was eighth fastest three hundredths behind Sainz, however, the Englishman had a spin and clipped the wall on his return to the pits. The half-spin at low-speed saw him damage the front wing.<\/p>\n
The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez was ninth ahead of the two Alpine\u2019s, with Fernando Alonso securing his place in the top ten going four and a half hundredths ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon. Perez over a second and a half off his teammate\u2019s third place.<\/p>\n
Several drivers suffered lock ups at Turn Two, the first braking zone, Antonio Giovinazzi locking up early on before a second lock up at Thirteen. The Alfa Romeo driver finishing the session thirteenth ahead of the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo, with his teammate Kimi Raikkonen fifteenth.<\/p>\n
Yuki Tsunoda put his Alpha Tauri sixteenth, the Japanese driver two seconds slower than his teammate Gasly. George Russell put his Williams seventeenth at a circuit that is expected to not suit the team, he was a quarter of a second faster than his teammate Nicolas Latifi.<\/p>\n
Nikita Mazepin was nineteenth, after going just under four-tenths faster than his Haas teammate Mick Schumacher.<\/p>\n
Valtteri Bottas lead a Mercedes one-two after going two tenths faster than teammate Lewis Hamilton in first practice for the Russian Grand Prix. The Finn set a 34.427 which put him ahead of Hamilton, while Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen was third a hundredth behind his championship rival. Mercedes have always gone well in Sochi, with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[47,115,116,122,123,125,167,198,199,369,390,493,647,707,709,814,882,885,1115,1123,1130,1131,1283,1287,1290,1298,1330,1426,1434,1544,1637,1638,1642,1728,1731,1732,1791,1808,1843,1857,1858,2105,2149,2152,2186],"class_list":["post-9660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-race-reports","tag-47","tag-alfa-romeo","tag-alfa-romeo-ferrari","tag-alpha-tauri","tag-alpha-tauri-honda","tag-alpine","tag-antonio-giovinazzi","tag-aston-martin","tag-aston-martin-mercedes","tag-carlos-sainz-jr","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-esteban-ocon","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-ferrari","tag-george-russell","tag-haas","tag-haas-ferrari","tag-kimi-raikkonen","tag-krasnodar-krai","tag-lance-stroll","tag-lando-norris","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mclaren","tag-mclaren-mercedes","tag-mercedes","tag-mick-schumacher","tag-nicolas-latifi","tag-nikita-mazepin","tag-pierre-gasly","tag-red-bull","tag-red-bull-honda","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-russia","tag-russian-gp","tag-russian-grand-prix","tag-sebastian-vettel","tag-sergio-perez","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-sochi","tag-sochi-autodrom","tag-valtteri-bottas","tag-williams","tag-williams-mercedes","tag-yuki-tsunoda"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}