Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

LIVE: Russian Grand Prix FP1

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Follow live coverage of the Russian Grand Prix weekend from Sochi Autodrom with F1i.

The opening practice session has been delayed due to a diesel spillage on the circuit, with the track currently being cleaned. After Charlie Whiting inspected the circuit, a delay of 30 minutes was confirmed with the time being lost from the opening session.

As a result, teams are unable to use the set of tyres allocated for the first half hour of FP1, with the clock ticking down but the pit lane remaining closed.

Mercedes heads in to the weekend needing to score just three points more than Ferrari to secure a second consecutive constructors' championship at the same circuit it took the title in 2014. However, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will be wary of a potentially tricky weekend on the street circuit, with the same soft and supersoft tyre compounds as Singapore being selected.

Ferrari will look to spoil Mercedes' party by chasing a repeat of Singapore, but Red Bull expects to be less competitive due to the two long straights on the Sochi circuit.

While McLaren's season has not seen many highlights, Fernando Alonso marks a personal milestone this weekend as he takes part in his 250th grand prix.

When the session starts, teams will be keen to get in as much running as possible with wet weather threatening FP2.

You can follow all the live coverage on F1i's live page, which can be bookmarked as it will provide commentary on every session of the 2015 F1 season.

LIVE: Russian Grand Prix FP1

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.