Raikkonen edges Bottas in first practice

2017 Russian Grand Prix first practice

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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.

Russian Grand Prix practice in pictures
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.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
17Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’36.07419
277Valtteri BottasMercedes1’36.1190.04524
344Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’36.6810.60723
433Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’37.1741.10019
55Sebastian VettelFerrari1’37.2301.15619
63Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’37.2901.21619
711Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’37.4571.38329
819Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’37.9001.82629
918Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’37.9441.87030
1031Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’38.0651.99128
1126Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’38.4962.42217
1220Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’38.7472.67323
1314Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’38.8132.73916
1455Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’38.9762.90217
1530Jolyon PalmerRenault1’39.1583.08416
168Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’39.5333.45917
172Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Honda1’39.5413.46719
1894Pascal WehrleinSauber-Ferrari1’39.7313.65721
199Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’40.0794.00520
2046Sergey SirotkinRenault2

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

DriverTeamBest super-soft timeSuper-soft gapBest soft timeSoft gap
Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’36.6810.6071’39.2521.526
Valtteri BottasMercedes1’36.1190.0451’39.5891.863
Daniel RicciardoRed Bull1’37.2901.2161’38.3810.655
Max VerstappenRed Bull1’37.1741.11’38.8721.146
Sebastian VettelFerrari1’37.2301.1561’37.726
Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’36.0741’37.7540.028
Sergio PerezForce India1’37.4571.3831’38.3880.662
Esteban OconForce India1’38.0651.9911’38.9971.271
Felipe MassaWilliams1’37.9001.8261’38.6450.919
Lance StrollWilliams1’37.9441.871’40.0342.308
Fernando AlonsoMcLaren1’38.8132.7391’40.0542.328
Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren1’39.5413.4671’40.7743.048
Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso1’39.5463.472None
Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1’38.4962.4221’39.9562.23
Romain GrosjeanHaas1’39.5333.4591’41.1663.44
Kevin MagnussenHaas1’38.7472.6731’40.1552.429
Sergey SirotkinRenaultNone4’42.096184.37
Jolyon PalmerRenault1’39.1583.0841’40.0522.326
Marcus EricssonSauber1’40.0794.0051’41.9394.213
Pascal WehrleinSauber1’39.7313.6571’40.9213.195

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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34 comments on “Raikkonen edges Bottas in first practice”

  1. Just what the doctor ordered.

  2. Poor Sirotkin

    1. Does anyone know how much he paid for this FP1?

      1. Depends by whom he was Putin the car

        1. Mechanical kremlins

          1. Probably put too much pressure on the car, russian about from lap one will always cause problems.

          2. Man some of these puns are a crimea.

            I would continue but I Moscow to work…

          3. I Kringle at some of those

          4. I Slav away at my keyboard for these, just trying to Milk it John

          5. Well played sir, well played

  3. 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

    1. 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.

    2. it’s hardly been a smooth start to the season so i don’t think any reasonable comparisons can be made.

      1. 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.

    3. 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.

    4. 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.

    5. I’ll definitely reserve judgement until both cars complete a race distance.

    6. 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.

    7. When was the last time Alonso didn’t crush his team mate?

      1. When he last had a top notch teammate…

      2. 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.

    8. 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…

    9. @shadow13

      At least he has finished a race this season, something Alonso hasn’t maanged yet.

  4. 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.

  5. force India look better here atleast now, looking forward to Barcelona for VJM10-B

  6. 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.

  7. McLaren are performing a full power unit change on Stoff’s car, 15 places grid drop.

    Good news is, the season is almost over

    1. Bet there wishing the season was over :)
      But yeah.. was good timing i guess.

  8. “Drivers’ best lap times by tyre”
    Great addition!
    Thanks Keith.

    1. @reh1v2-0 Glad you like it! More to come.

      1. Excellent ! Maybe we could have the speed trap figures to understand the drag/power/downforce settings.

    2. Second that. It answers the first question you have when looking at FP results. Thanks for this.

  9. 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.

  10. Well done Stroll!
    FP1. But I’d like to give the kid a break from our critical remarks ;)

Comments are closed.