Raikkonen tops first practice at Sochi

F1 Grand Prix, GP Russia, Sochi International Street Circuit

Kimi Raikkonen was fastest during the first practice session at the Sochi Autodrom. He narrowly topped his countryman Valtteri Bottas in a Mercedes as the two Finns led the rest of the field. Lewis Hamilton was third fastest, 6 tenths down on the Finnish leaders.

These three were also the only ones to be within the same second, as fourth fastest, Max Verstappen was 1.1 seconds down on the pace setting Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo completed the top 6 which embodied the three major F1 teams of recent years.

Next up is Sergio Perez who appears to confirm that Force India have made strides with their new floor, resolving some of the aerodynamic issues that made the car a struggle in the first few races. The Williams duo led by Felipe Massa are 8th and 9th as Esteban Ocon completes the top 10. The latter did shed an engine cover that caused a brief red flag, but it didn't really cause major issues for him or anybody else on track.

Overall, the session saw reliable running across the board, except for Sergei Sirotkin. The Russian driver was set to complete the session for Renault in place of Nico Hulkenberg, but didn't get more than two laps in before having to return to the pits with technical trouble.

Apart from some spins, including instances from Vettel and Hamilton, Stoffel Vandoorne reported power loss towards the end of the session. Until that time however, both McLarens ran reliably.