Valtteri Bottas was fastest in the first practice session at Sochi while team mate Lewis Hamilton was unexpectedly last among the 19 drivers who set times.
The first 90 minutes of running at Sochi Autodrom was also disrupted by separate crashes for Carlos Sainz Jnr and Nicholas Latifi.After very slow starts to practice in Monza and Mugello, cars were straight out on track at Sochi with several teams bringing upgrades – Lance Stroll running new parts on his Racing Point and both McLaren cars trying a new “nosebox” evolved from their Mugello update.
However McLaren’s running was not helped when Sainz crashed into the barriers at turn seven. The MCL35 slid in backwards, breaking both the wing and the car’s rear structure. He was able to return to the pits with the wing hanging off the back of the car, under warning from his engineer to go as slowly as possible. He only managed half an hour of running in the upgraded car, which his team were unable to repair before the end of the session.
Latifi also crashed in almost the same place later in the session. Drivers had been being warned about crosswinds in turns 10 and 13 but both Latifi and Sainz’s crashes seemed to be the rear sliding out from under them in the 90-degree corner at turn seven. Latifi’s crash was heavier than Sainz’s, going into the barrier side-on with the left of his car crumpled into the tyre barriers, bringing out a brief red flag to retrieve the Williams.
Daniil Kvyat looked rapid early briefly topped the times at his home grand prix while running on medium tyres early in the session. But Bottas was able to move ahead on the harder compound, followed by the Renaults, Verstappen and the Racing Point cars.
Hamilton suffered an uncharacteristically low-key session, only setting times on hard tyres and without a huge amount of running after suffering a lock-up what flat-spotted his front-left. He finished the session 19th fastest, almost three seconds back from Bottas’ time. His initial attempt at setting a soft tyre time was also disrupted by the Virtual Safety Car triggered out by Sainz’s crash
Several drivers complained about being held up by their rivals, but no investigations were registered, and Bottas finished the session fastest with a 1’34.923. As the track was still very green at this stage in the weekend, this was over three seconds why of Charles Leclerc’s 2019 pole time of 1’31.628.
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2020 Russian Grand Prix first practice result
2020 Russian Grand Prix First Practice classification
Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’34.923 | 13 | |
2 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1’35.430 | 0.507 | 22 |
3 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’35.577 | 0.654 | 22 |
4 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’35.796 | 0.873 | 23 |
5 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’35.965 | 1.042 | 21 |
6 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1’36.061 | 1.138 | 23 |
7 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’36.230 | 1.307 | 22 |
8 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull-Honda | 1’36.254 | 1.331 | 24 |
9 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’36.323 | 1.400 | 23 |
10 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’36.706 | 1.783 | 25 |
11 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’36.896 | 1.973 | 23 |
12 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren-Renault | 1’36.970 | 2.047 | 8 |
13 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | 1’37.110 | 2.187 | 28 |
14 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’37.201 | 2.278 | 17 |
15 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’37.230 | 2.307 | 23 |
16 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’37.430 | 2.507 | 22 |
17 | 63 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’37.595 | 2.672 | 24 |
18 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’37.649 | 2.726 | 24 |
19 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’37.716 | 2.793 | 18 |
20 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’37.784 | 2.861 | 11 |
First practice visual gaps
Valtteri Bottas – 1’34.923
+0.507 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’35.430
+0.654 Max Verstappen – 1’35.577
+0.873 Sergio Perez – 1’35.796
+1.042 Lance Stroll – 1’35.965
+1.138 Esteban Ocon – 1’36.061
+1.307 Daniil Kvyat – 1’36.230
+1.331 Alexander Albon – 1’36.254
+1.400 Sebastian Vettel – 1’36.323
+1.783 Pierre Gasly – 1’36.706
+1.973 Charles Leclerc – 1’36.896
+2.047 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’36.970
+2.187 Lando Norris – 1’37.110
+2.278 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’37.201
+2.307 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’37.230
+2.507 Kevin Magnussen – 1’37.430
+2.672 George Russell – 1’37.595
+2.726 Romain Grosjean – 1’37.649
+2.793 Lewis Hamilton – 1’37.716
+2.861 Nicholas Latifi – 1’37.784
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
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2020 Russian Grand Prix
- Despite F1 drivers’ concerns, stewards don’t give penalty points for “minor infringements”
- 2020 Russian Grand Prix Star Performers
- “Slower” Ferrari only beat us because of Q3 tyre rule – Tost
- “I may not always get it right” says Hamilton after penalty criticism
- Why did the stewards make their second U-turn this year on a Hamilton penalty call?
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
25th September 2020, 11:00
Is Lewis’ career over?
ColdFly (@)
25th September 2020, 11:20
he’s just practicing for the potential introduction of reverse-grids.
cookie71 (@paulcook)
25th September 2020, 11:57
:-)
Nikos (@exeviolthor)
25th September 2020, 12:55
Priceless!!! :)
Rockgod (@rockgod)
25th September 2020, 11:04
Bottas 3.0 – Russian Update seems to do wonders.
Rott
25th September 2020, 11:11
Max fastest sector which was yellow sector. Surely there must be a penalty coming on.
Jere (@jerejj)
25th September 2020, 11:17
@Rott The yellow happened behind him, so he had already passed that point of the track before. Furthermore, this is only about practice, not qualifying where lap times truly matter. Another point, improving is irrelevant as long as it doesn’t come from the relevant mini-sector as proven by the cases of the two Nicos in 2016.
Rott
25th September 2020, 17:01
Ok. The rules are confusing.
Patrick (@paeschli)
25th September 2020, 12:29
I suppose you can keep racing as hard as you can if the crash happens behind you, even if you are still in the affected yellow sector?
ColdFly (@)
25th September 2020, 13:13
@paeschli
technically not; yellow sector is yellow sector, which means ‘lift throttle’.
Drivers have used it as an excuse though, but that is a bit shortsighted as there could be a second stranded car around the corner.
bharat (@bharat141)
25th September 2020, 14:23
Yes. The yellow flags are given for the mini-sector or the marshalling sector and not the timing sector. If an accident happens behind you while u are on the same timing sector, but past that mini-sector, you can go full throttle, as long as u don’t encounter naother yellow flag ahead.
Lapov Onor
25th September 2020, 13:17
“Valtteri Bottas was fastest in the first practice session at Sochi while team mate Lewis Hamilton was unexpectedly last among the 19 drivers who set times.”
Funnily enough though, 20 drivers times listed and Latifi slower, making Hamilton 19th rather than slowest, so I guess being classed as last is very unexpected