Russian GP: Free Practice 1 - Re-Cap & Times

RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE #1

 An exciting start to the Russian GP weekend with 2 Russian drivers on track this year. Sergey Sirotkin, former Sauber F1 Team reserve driver, has just recently been signed to Renault as their test driver and was given the opportunity to drive in this session, with Magnussen sitting out.

    Also sitting out this session was Nico Hulkenberg, so Alfonso Celis could drive the Force India. Celis is the teams development driver for the season, with rumours that he step up and get an actual race seat next year.

    Red Bull ran their "Canopy" head protection concept on Daniel Ricciardo's car. While it was only for a few minutes, it gave the team and others an idea of what could possibly be the future for F1 cars, without it being closed cockpit.

    Mercedes topped the session with Rosberg taking the top spot. Hamilton finished close behind in 2nd and Vettel rounded up the top three in the Ferrari. Felipe Massa was side-lined for most of the session with a clutch issue and Rio Haryanto was stuck in his garage with mechanical issues. Both ended up partaking in the later half of the session and were still able to set times.

TIMES:

1. Nico Rosberg - 1:38.127 / Mercedes-Mercedes

2. Lewis Hamilton - 1:38.849 / Mercedes-Mercedes

3. Sebastian Vettel - 1:39.175 / Ferrari-Ferrari

4. Kimi Raikkonen - 1:39.332 / Ferrari-Ferrari

5. Felipe Massa - 1:39.365 / Williams-Mercedes

6. Daniel Ricciardo - 1:39.650 / Red Bull-TAG-HEUER

7. Valtteri Bottas - 1:39.802 / Williams-Mercedes

8. Daniil Kvyat - 1:40.218 / Red Bull-TAG-HEUER

9. Sergio Perez - 1:40.287 / Force India-Mercedes

10. Carlos Sainz - 1:40.654 / Toro Rosso-Ferrari

11. Jenson Button - 1:40.663 / McLaren-Honda

12. Fernando Alonso - 1:40.771 / McLaren-Honda

13. Sergey Sirotkin* - 1:40.898 / Renault-Renault

14. Felipe Nasr - 1:41.085 / Sauber-Ferrari

15. Max Verstappen - 1:41.134 / Toro Rosso-Ferrari

16. Esteban Gutierrez - 1:41.238 / Haas-Ferrari

17. Romain Grosjean - 1:41.385 / Haas-Ferrari

18. Jolyon Palmer - 1:41.671 / Renault-Renault

19. Marcus Ericsson - 1:41.962 / Sauber-Ferrari

20. Pascal Wehrlein - 1:42.483 / Manor-Mercedes

21. Rio Haryanto - 1:42.687 / Manor-Mercedes

22. Alfonso Celis* - 1:43.432 / Force India-Mercedes

* - Notes driver is only driving in this session.

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Article Written By: Amy Hawk

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