Russian Grand Prix - Free practice 1: Seb ninth, Charles eleventh

At the end of the first free practice session, the Scuderia Ferrari SF1000s were ninth with Sebastian Vettel and eleventh with Charles Leclerc. Both drivers did 23 laps of the Sochi Autodrom, while running different programmes to evaluate the Pirelli tyre compounds, as well as the usual set up work on the cars.

First part.  Sebastian and Charles both started on Soft tyres, a choice dictated by the fact the track was very dirty and track and air temperatures were not particularly high. Leclerc set his best time, good enough for 11thin 1’36”896 on this compound, before switching to the hard tyre for the second part of the 90 minute session. At this stage, he also did some long runs in race trim. Sebastian set his best time using the Medium tyres, stopping the clocks in 1’36”323, ninth fastest.

Programme.  The car are back on track at 3 pm (14 CET) while the final 60 minutes of preparation prior to qualifying starts tomorrow at 12 (11 CET.) Qualifying is at 15 (14 CET,) while the race gets underway on Sunday at 14.10 (13.10 CET.)