Raikkonen edges Bottas by 0.045s in FP1 in Russia

Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in the first free practice for the Russian Grand Prix as he edged out Valtteri Bottas by just 0.045s in Sochi.

The two Finns were comfortably clear at the top of the times at the end of a disjointed opening session – despite Bottas catching a major slide close to the wall at Turn 14 – with Lewis Hamilton 0.6s adrift in third place. Hamilton's attempts to get on terms with his teammate were hurt by a lock-up at Turn 13 late in the session, with the Briton having to bail out of the corner and spin his car around before rejoining the track.

Hamilton wasn't the only frontrunner to face the wrong way at one stage, with Sebastian Vettel also suffering a spin at Turn 16. The Ferrari was out of shape in the first part of the chicane and appeared to take too much curb, unsettling the rear and sending Vettel round on the low-grip surface. The championship leader let the car roll backward for a while to allow others to pass him before righting himself and returning to the pits.

Vettel ended up fifth quickest as a result of his error, over a second slower than teammate Raikkonen. Max Verstappen managed to split Vettel and Hamilton but was also 1.1s off the pace and complained of a gearbox issue in the second half of the session.

Daniel Ricciardo was a little over 0.1s adrift of his Red Bull teammate in sixth place, leading Sergio Perez, Felipe Massa, once Stroll and Esteban Ocon. In tenth place, Ocon was the last driver within two seconds of Raikkonen's time, but caused a red flag after an hour of running when his engine cover came off. The Force India driver was at top speed approaching the braking zone Turn 2, when the cover flew off and landed on the side of the track.

The session was only red flagged for a few minutes while Ocon's engine cover was removed, with the Frenchman returning to the pits with the power unit installation on display.

Ocon's problem was not the most significant of the morning session, however, as Sergey Sirotkin suffered a reliability issue that forced him to pull over on the exit of Turn 2 on just his second lap. The Russian was driving in FP1 in place of Nico Hulkenberg but his session was over as a result, leaving him without a full flying lap to his name.

While Sirotkin propped up the timing screens, directly above him was the Sauber pair of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson, with Wehrlein 0.4s clear of his teammate as the Swede tested a McLaren-style T-wing. Stoffel Vandoorne was just ahead of Wehrlein but his session came to a slightly early end as he complained of a lack of power and limped back to the pits in the final ten minutes.

Haas was running Carbon Industrie brakes after a successful test in Bahrain, replacing Brembo after problems with consistency during its debut F1 season. However, Romain Grosjean was still not completely happy and ended up 16th quickest, 0.008s ahead of Vandoorne and 0.8s adrift of 12th-placed teammate Kevin Magnussen.