Lap times 1st practice 2018 Russian F1 Grand Prix

Track view during the Russian GP at Sochi Autodrom on September 25, 2018

Event: Russian F1 Grand Prix
Track:  Sochi International Street Circuit

Weather: / Partly Cloudy, 21ºC
Tarmac: Dry, 27ºC
Wind speed: 2.8 km/h
Humidity: 63%

This race weekend In Russia the teams are allowed to use the Soft (yellow), Ultrasoft (purple) and Hypersoft (pink) tyres.

Lando Norris drove the McLaren of Fernando Alonso this first practice session for the Russian GP. Norris was together with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen the first to go out to kick off FP1 in Russia.

NIcolas Latifi, Artem Markelov and Antonio Giovinazzi were also replacement drivers like Norris. Latifi drove the Force India of Sergio Pérez, Artem Markelov the Renault of Sainz and Giovinazzi the Sauber of Ericsson this first practice session. Norris, Markelov and Latifi are currently driving in F2. Norris holds P2, Markelov P4 and Latifi P8 in the current Formula 2 standings.

Half an hour into the session the very "green" Sochi track was rubbed in both Red Bull Racing drivers were fitted with the quickest Hypersoft tyre and Daniel Ricciardo drove the fastest lap time of 1:36.600 min. This time was quickly improved by Lewis Hamilton with the Mercedes on the "slower" Ultrasoft tyre.

Halfway the session it was Max Verstappen who improved the quickest lap time on Hypersoft tyres to 1:34.960 min. Ricciardo damaged the floor of the RB14 in turn 2 and to return to the garage to fix it and didn't return to the track.

It was interesting to see that Lando Norris was sometimes faster than fellow McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne. Norris only used Hypersoft tyres.

With an half hour to go we saw Hamilton doing some laps on the yellow Soft tyres. Hamilton showed that the hardest compound had a lot less grip and couldn't make turn 2 and had to go wide. A few laps later both Mercedes showed that their pace on the Soft tyres was more or less the same as on the Ultrasofts.

Ferrari was not focusing on driving the quickest lap times in the first hour of the session. Sebastian Vettel was 5th fastest and Kimi Raikkonen was on P11. With 25 minutes to go, Vettel was ready to put in a good lap on Hypersofts and drove a 1:34.488 min, which was also the fastest lap of FP1. Hamilton was only 0.3 sec slower on the Soft tyres, the hardest compound...

The quickest lap of FP1 last year was 1:36,074 min, driven by Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari. He drove that lap on Supersoft tyres.

Here you can find an overview of the used power unit elements in 2018.
Read our race preview in What to expect from the 2018 Russian F1 GP.

FP1 Lap Times 2018 Russian GP

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