Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheet in FP1 ahead of the Russian Grand Prix, 0.050 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen while Formula 1 championship leader Lewis Hamilton was third.
Red Bull’s Verstappen occupied first place after the first half of the 90-minute session.
However, Vettel improved significantly later on, vaulting from fifth on the timesheet to first with a 1m34.488s benchmark on the hypersoft tyre.
Verstappen threatened to overhaul the pacesetter. Despite recording a session-best time through the third sector, he could only draw to 0.050s of Vettel’s time and was unable to improve on his second lap after running wide at Turn 7.
Posting their session-best times on the soft compound tyre – the hardest of this weekend’s allocation – Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas ended up third and fourth.
Hamilton twice ran off-track at the 90-degree right-hander Turn 2 during the session as he tested the limits at the circuit’s heaviest braking zone.
Championship leader Hamilton – who enters this weekend 40 points clear of Vettel at the top of the standings – has not topped a practice session at the previous five races.
Daniel Ricciardo’s FP1 ended after 40-minutes, as the team investigated the cause of a small fire at the rear of the car upon returning to the pits.
The issue was not believed to be power unit related – with the Red Bull pairing reverting to a B-spec Renault power unit this weekend and therefore already set to start at the back of the grid – and the team’s investigation was a precautionary one.
Red Bull joins the Toro Rossos and Fernando Alonso in taking power unit penalties into this weekend’s race. All five cars waited at the end of the pitlane prior to the start of the session in order to be the first out on track.
After having not completed a representative lap on the hypersoft tyres during the session, Kimi Raikkonen was pipped to sixth by Esteban Ocon’s Force India.
Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg were the next best in eighth and ninth, albeit over half a second behind Ocon, as Force India seems to be the early favourites in F1’s midfield battle.
Sauber’s 2019 recruit Antonio Giovinazzi was one of four young drivers given seat time during FP1. Giovinazzi propelled his Sauber to 10th on the timesheet with a late lap.
Lando Norris, who deputised for Alonso was 0.165s ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne with the pair finishing 13th and 16th respectively.
Artem Markelov ended up 15th for Renault, after having tested a new floor. Force India’s Nicholas Latifi was 17th.
