Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Hulkenberg tops farcical FP1 in Russia

Nico Hulkenberg set the fastest time of a farcical first practice session for the Russian Grand Prix after a diesel spillage.

With teams keen to get in dry running before predicted rain in the afternoon, they were greeted by a delay to the opening session. Half an hour of early running was lost due to a diesel spillage between turns 7 and 9 which required a major clean-up operation.

With firemen hosing down the circuit, all of the cars headed out on intermediate or wet tyres for their installation laps when the pit lane opened after 30 minutes, but conditions remained difficult throughout the remaining hour.

The track remained slippery, with a number of drivers running wide at Turn 8 and Kimi Raikkonen sliding off track before spinning at low speed. Towards the end of the session, Felipe Massa also spun at Turn 8 with Lewis Hamilton taking avoiding action behind the Williams, but Hamilton then duly spun off himself at the penultimate corner.

With little running taking place before the final half hour, the McLarens topped the session for a spell before a flurry of late laps saw a reshuffling of the order, with Hulkenberg posting a 1:44.355. That left the Force India just 0.052s clear of Nico Rosberg, who completed a number of early laps in order to carry out practice starts before being warned his clutch was overheating.

Sebastian Vettel was third fastest for Ferrari despite being one of a number of drivers to run wide at Turn 8, radioing in on his installation lap to say: "What a mess". Sergio Perez ensured both Force Indias ended FP1 in the top four, with Daniel Ricciardo fifth and Carlos Sainz sixth.

Hamilton was seventh despite his spin, with Valtteri Bottas eighth quickest. Bottas opted for full wet tyres on his installation lap but was caught out by a lack of grip which saw him run wide when trying to return to the pit lane and having to dive back in to the pit entry.

Marcus Ericsson had been first on track when the pit lane opened but his session ended early when he stopped at the pit exit and had to be pushed back to the Sauber garage.

AS IT HAPPENED: Russian Grand Prix FP1

FP1 in Russia delayed by diesel spillage

Click here for the F1 drivers' girlfriends gallery

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:44.355	11
02	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:44.407	15
03	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:44.986	15
04	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:45.146	11
05	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:45.233	10
06	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:45.488	13
07	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:45.691	10
08	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:45.746	13
09	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:46.203	13
10	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:46.215	16
11	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:46.231	12
12	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:46.333	12
13	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:46.747	13
14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:47.443	16
15	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:48.006	9
16	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1:48.096	9
17	Jolyon Palmer	Lotus	1:49.094	9
18	Roberto Merhi	Manor	1:52.994	12
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:54.272	12
20	Will Stevens	Manor	1:58.254	6

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.