Vettel leads the way in Sochi opening free practice

Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari enjoyed a good start to their Russian Grand Prix weekend, the pair outpacing Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton in Friday's opening session, with a lap in 1m34.488s that put him 0.050s clear of his closest rival.

Overcast but warm conditions prevailed during the incident-free morning work session.

2018 Russian Grand Prix - Free Practice 1

Sochi's move back to a late season schedule means teams only have minimal data linked to early autumn track conditions to rely on as they start their Russian GP weekend.

McLaren's 2019 driver, Lando Norris, running in place of Fernando Alonso, head to queue that waited the head out on track, the young Brit joined by Nicholas Latifi, Artem Markelov and Antonio Giovinazzi, respectively with Force India, Renault and Sauber, as the FP1 third-driver runners in the opening session.

With the exception of Mercedes' duo, everyone got to work at the outset, with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen setting first real benchmark time in 1m37.063s.

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Once Valtteri Bottas got going, the Finn was quick to slot himself into second, behind his countryman, but Red Bull's chargers soon overhauled both to place themselves at the top of the timesheet, with Ricciardo's 1m36.600s leading the way.

A the thirty-minute mark, the Silver Arrows dialed in some speed, with Hamilton just outpacing Bottas, but the two were soon split by both Red Bulls.

The bull camp was put on alert however when a smoking Ricciardo was wheeled into the garage, the team's mechanics immediately pouring over the back end of the Aussie's RB14.

Out on the race track, many drivers reported over the radio to be surprised by the relatively quick drop-off in performance of Pirelli's tyres.

That didn't prevent a hypersoft-shod Sebastian Vettel from seizing the fastest time, with a fast and tidy 1m34.488s lap that put him clear of Verstappen by 0.050s. An effort that contrasted with Raikkonen's lower speed, likely a result of the Scuderia running different programmes.

Fitted with the more conservative soft compound, Hamilton and Bottas lined up behind, edging Ricciardo, while Force India's Esteban Ocon was best of the rest.

While relatively irrelevant, one noted Giovinazzi's outperformance of Charles Leclerc in the session, the Monegasque complaining of a lack of rear-end grip on his C37.

Similarly, Norris was also seen outrunning Stoffel Vandoorne in McLaren's morning session.

Down at the bottom of the standings, a Williams was once again making up the rear, with Lance Stroll concluding his morning 4.6s off Vettel's pace.

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