Kimi Raikkonen narrowly led Valtteri Bottas in first practice for the Russian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver set his best time on a set of super-soft tyres and led his Mercedes rival by less than five-hundredths of a second.
Sebastian Vettel attempted to beat his team mate’s time late in the session but spun at turn 16. He also understeered wide at turn 13 on an earlier run and ended the session fifth-fastest.
The two Mercedes drivers split the Ferraris but set their times during the first half of the session when track conditions were not as good. Max Verstappen put up the fourth-fastest time but reported some concerns about the balance of his car.
The second half of the top ten included both Force Indias, despite Esteban Ocon losing his engine cover and causing a brief red flag stoppage. The Williams pair separated him and team mate Sergio Perez.
Sergey Sirotkin’s first practice outing of the year for Renault proved a disappointment. He stopped within minutes of the session beginning due to an apparent technical problem and was unable to set a time.
Stoffel Vandoorne also reported more problems on his McLaren shortly before the chequered flag came out. Further new power unit elements have been fitted to his car this weekend. He now had no more penalty-free MGU-H or turbo changes left.
Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’36.074 | 19 | |
2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’36.119 | 0.045 | 24 |
3 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’36.681 | 0.607 | 23 |
4 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’37.174 | 1.100 | 19 |
5 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’37.230 | 1.156 | 19 |
6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’37.290 | 1.216 | 19 |
7 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’37.457 | 1.383 | 29 |
8 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’37.900 | 1.826 | 29 |
9 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’37.944 | 1.870 | 30 |
10 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’38.065 | 1.991 | 28 |
11 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’38.496 | 2.422 | 17 |
12 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’38.747 | 2.673 | 23 |
13 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’38.813 | 2.739 | 16 |
14 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’38.976 | 2.902 | 17 |
15 | 30 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’39.158 | 3.084 | 16 |
16 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’39.533 | 3.459 | 17 |
17 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Honda | 1’39.541 | 3.467 | 19 |
18 | 94 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’39.731 | 3.657 | 21 |
19 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’40.079 | 4.005 | 20 |
20 | 46 | Sergey Sirotkin | Renault | 2 |
First practice visual gaps
Kimi Raikkonen – 1’36.074
+0.045 Valtteri Bottas – 1’36.119
+0.607 Lewis Hamilton – 1’36.681
+1.100 Max Verstappen – 1’37.174
+1.156 Sebastian Vettel – 1’37.230
+1.216 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’37.290
+1.383 Sergio Perez – 1’37.457
+1.826 Felipe Massa – 1’37.900
+1.870 Lance Stroll – 1’37.944
+1.991 Esteban Ocon – 1’38.065
+2.422 Daniil Kvyat – 1’38.496
+2.673 Kevin Magnussen – 1’38.747
+2.739 Fernando Alonso – 1’38.813
+2.902 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’38.976
+3.084 Jolyon Palmer – 1’39.158
+3.459 Romain Grosjean – 1’39.533
+3.467 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’39.541
+3.657 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’39.731
+4.005 Marcus Ericsson – 1’40.079
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
Drivers’ best lap times by tyre
Driver | Team | Best super-soft time | Super-soft gap | Best soft time | Soft gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’36.681 | 0.607 | 1’39.252 | 1.526 |
Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’36.119 | 0.045 | 1’39.589 | 1.863 |
Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1’37.290 | 1.216 | 1’38.381 | 0.655 |
Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1’37.174 | 1.1 | 1’38.872 | 1.146 |
Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’37.230 | 1.156 | 1’37.726 | |
Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’36.074 | 1’37.754 | 0.028 | |
Sergio Perez | Force India | 1’37.457 | 1.383 | 1’38.388 | 0.662 |
Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1’38.065 | 1.991 | 1’38.997 | 1.271 |
Felipe Massa | Williams | 1’37.900 | 1.826 | 1’38.645 | 0.919 |
Lance Stroll | Williams | 1’37.944 | 1.87 | 1’40.034 | 2.308 |
Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1’38.813 | 2.739 | 1’40.054 | 2.328 |
Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1’39.541 | 3.467 | 1’40.774 | 3.048 |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 1’39.546 | 3.472 | None | |
Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1’38.496 | 2.422 | 1’39.956 | 2.23 |
Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1’39.533 | 3.459 | 1’41.166 | 3.44 |
Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1’38.747 | 2.673 | 1’40.155 | 2.429 |
Sergey Sirotkin | Renault | None | 4’42.096 | 184.37 | |
Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’39.158 | 3.084 | 1’40.052 | 2.326 |
Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1’40.079 | 4.005 | 1’41.939 | 4.213 |
Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber | 1’39.731 | 3.657 | 1’40.921 | 3.195 |
2017 Russian Grand Prix
- Maiden victory earn Bottas first Driver of the Weekend win since 2014
- 2017 Russian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Thanks for nothing: Sochi rated among worst ten races of last ten years
- 2017 Russian Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- 2017 Russian Grand Prix Star Performers
HUHHII (@huhhii)
28th April 2017, 10:25
Just what the doctor ordered.
Hugh (@hugh11)
28th April 2017, 10:37
Poor Sirotkin
Daniel Elbo (@delboand)
28th April 2017, 11:24
Does anyone know how much he paid for this FP1?
Bustertje (@datt)
28th April 2017, 12:46
Depends by whom he was Putin the car
Kringle
28th April 2017, 14:22
Mechanical kremlins
Kringle
28th April 2017, 14:24
Probably put too much pressure on the car, russian about from lap one will always cause problems.
Kringle
28th April 2017, 14:25
Man some of these puns are a crimea.
I would continue but I Moscow to work…
Joao (@johnmilk)
28th April 2017, 17:10
I Kringle at some of those
Kringle
28th April 2017, 20:08
I Slav away at my keyboard for these, just trying to Milk it John
Joao (@johnmilk)
28th April 2017, 21:03
Well played sir, well played
shadow13 (@shadow13)
28th April 2017, 10:52
I know there are heavy extenuating circumstances but has anybody else been underwhelmed by Vandoorne? I didn’t expect him to beat Alonso by any means but he’s not even close in any session. Whether it’s practice, qualifying or the race Alonso seems to be vastly quicker. I’m not sure if it says more about Alonso or Vandoorne but I feel he needs to make it a bit closer at least
ECWDanSelby (@ecwdanselby)
28th April 2017, 11:02
I’ve been thinking exactly the same thing, actually. For someone so highly rated, he’ll need to start showing some of that potential soon, or we’ll be seeing another Kevin Magnussen.
frood19 (@frood19)
28th April 2017, 11:02
it’s hardly been a smooth start to the season so i don’t think any reasonable comparisons can be made.
shadow13 (@shadow13)
28th April 2017, 11:08
Yeah I’m hoping he picks up. Like @frood19 says it hasn’t exactly been a fair test yet but I was expecting to be impressed this season and yet every race its interesting seeing where Alonso can wrestle that car to but Vandoorne is never anywhere close.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
28th April 2017, 11:14
I’m with you. Vandoorne has probably been doing a good job but he’s definitely not being a star yet by any means. I think the hype and the build-up to him getting in that car may have been a bit much, people on here were expecting him to compare favourably to Verstappen or Sainz and maybe he will at some point, but I think him being out of F1 did his reputation no harm which is kinda funny.
MaddMe (@)
28th April 2017, 11:17
Give him a chance…
He had PU issues at Australia and China and didn’t even manage to start in Bahrain. Sadly it looks as though he has more problems here again at Russia.
Nick (@skrabble)
28th April 2017, 11:51
I’ll definitely reserve judgement until both cars complete a race distance.
Jordi Casademunt (@casjo)
28th April 2017, 13:10
You have to consider that he’s a rookie who only got 235 laps of testing at the pre-season tests. Compared to other rookies, Stroll got 386, and Ocon (who I still consider pretty much a rookie) had 365. The only drivers that had less mileage in the pre-season tests were Alonso, Giovinazzi, Celis and Wehrlein (Giovinazzi and Werhlein did only half of the test, and combined have 343 laps). Of the total mileage, I wonder how much of it was clean (without mechanical issues or having to run the engine at GP2 levels).
And so far, he hasn’t had a clean weekend. He’s always having some mechanical issue. That doesn’t help.
All the mileage lost in the tests also means he (and McLaren in general) couldn’t do any setup work. It arguably hurts him more than Alonso (since Alonso has more experience and can probably adapt better to a car that isn’t driving well).
I’m not sure Verstappen or Sainz would be doing much better if they were in Vandoorne’s situation. In 2015, Sainz did 589 laps (in 12 days, so 49 laps per day). Verstappen did 617 laps (51 laps per day). Vandoorne did 29 laps per day (and the total mileage is a lot lower anyway, 1093km to Sainz’s 2700 and Verstappen’s 2834). The mileage difference counts a lot.
n0b0dy100
28th April 2017, 13:11
When was the last time Alonso didn’t crush his team mate?
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
28th April 2017, 13:27
When he last had a top notch teammate…
Baron
28th April 2017, 13:57
The last couple of races in 2012 when Ferrari needed both cars to try and get the drivers championship and Massa was, all of a sudden, just as quick.
He Man
28th April 2017, 14:10
Also keep in mind that Alonso has been receiving all new updates on his car before Vandoorne. Apparently there were phases in Bahrain where he was as fast as Alonso (according to Eric Boullier), but as people have said, it’s next to impossible to really assess both of their performances yet. Hope it comes good for both drivers soon…
Patrick (@paeschli)
28th April 2017, 19:24
@shadow13
At least he has finished a race this season, something Alonso hasn’t maanged yet.
Ruben
28th April 2017, 10:56
Still early days but at least the Fins are looking on it for now.
Vandoorne already out of some components for the season. And race four hasn’t even started.
Pastor Maldonado is more reliable than a Honda Power Unit.
Raveendhana
28th April 2017, 11:07
force India look better here atleast now, looking forward to Barcelona for VJM10-B
MG421982 (@)
28th April 2017, 11:14
Mmm… FP1… pretty useless to extract any real conclusions. It’s a must to wait for FP2 and FP3, compare the results and only then have a say about the possible order.
Joao (@johnmilk)
28th April 2017, 11:30
McLaren are performing a full power unit change on Stoff’s car, 15 places grid drop.
Good news is, the season is almost over
Micheal (@shakengandulf)
28th April 2017, 11:47
Bet there wishing the season was over :)
But yeah.. was good timing i guess.
reh1v2.0 (@reh1v2-0)
28th April 2017, 11:54
“Drivers’ best lap times by tyre”
Great addition!
Thanks Keith.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
28th April 2017, 13:41
@reh1v2-0 Glad you like it! More to come.
@HoHum (@hohum)
29th April 2017, 0:30
Excellent ! Maybe we could have the speed trap figures to understand the drag/power/downforce settings.
DaveW (@dmw)
28th April 2017, 14:13
Second that. It answers the first question you have when looking at FP results. Thanks for this.
mrfart
28th April 2017, 12:01
Apparently, and not unsurprisingly, Alonso’s car also gets a lot more attention in the garage. Stofffel was also ordered to let him go first in quali at least once, giving him only one flying lap. etc…
In short, you can’t really judge him until the mclaren/honda starts to behave at least a little bit reliable.
But they already lost an engine again today, right? I’m not exactly optimistic about the hole thing.
@F1-liners (@f1-liners)
28th April 2017, 12:11
Well done Stroll!
FP1. But I’d like to give the kid a break from our critical remarks ;)