Sochi Practice 1: Rosberg leads Mercedes 1-2

The Aldo Costa Mercedes’ continued their complete dominance of Formula 1 by topping the opening free practice session for the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi.

Nico Rosberg put up a time of 1m38.127s and outdrove teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.722 seconds using the same Pirelli SuperSoft tire compound.

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel prevailed in the ‘best of the rest’ category to take third ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen and Williams driver Felipe Massa. But was Ferrari sandbagging?

Both Ferrari drivers opted to run medium and then soft tires during the session, compared to the Mercedes strategy of soft then super-soft – meaning the Ferrari drivers were on harder rubber and have not shown their hand yet.

Valtteri Bottas was seventh fastest behind Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull.

Daniil Kvyat was eighth in the second Red Bull, but spun at the next to last corner corner while on a better lap.

Force India driver Sergio Perez was ninth with Carlos Sainz Jr 10th and the best non-Ferrari driver using softs.

Results

Pos Driver Car Time Behind Laps Tires
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes/Mercedes 1m38.127s 0.000s 32 SuperSoft
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes/Mercedes 1m38.849s 0.722s 31 SuperSoft
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari/Ferrari 1m39.175s 1.048s 19 Soft
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari/Ferrari 1m39.332s 1.205s 18 Soft
5 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m39.365s 1.238s 14 SuperSoft
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/TAG Heuer 1m39.650s 1.523s 24 SuperSoft
7 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes 1m39.802s 1.675s 34 SuperSoft
8 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull/TAG Heuer 1m40.218s 2.091s 26 SuperSoft
9 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m40.287s 2.160s 22 SuperSoft
10 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso/Ferrari 1m40.654s 2.527s 21 Soft
11 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda 1m40.663s 2.536s 19 Soft
12 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 1m40.771s 2.644s 18 Soft
13 Sergey Sirotkin Renault/Renault 1m40.898s 2.771s 24 SuperSoft
14 Felipe Nasr Sauber/Ferrari 1m41.085s 2.958s 21 SuperSoft
15 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso/Ferrari 1m41.134s 3.007s 22 SuperSoft
16 Esteban Gutierrez Haas/Ferrari 1m41.238s 3.111s 18 SuperSoft
17 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m41.385s 3.258s 20 SuperSoft
18 Jolyon Palmer Renault/Renault 1m41.671s 3.544s 25 SuperSoft
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m41.962s 3.835s 22 SuperSoft
20 Pascal Wehrlein Manor/Mercedes 1m42.483s 4.356s 21 SuperSoft
21 Rio Haryanto Manor/Mercedes 1m42.687s 4.560s 8 SuperSoft
22 Alfonso Celis Force India/Mercedes 1m43.432s 5.305s 23 Soft

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