Sam Bird sets fastest time in first practice at brand new Moscow Raceway

With building work still going on around the site of the track, the FR3.5 field took to the circuit for its first 90-minute session, extended from the usual 75 minutes because the venue is new to everyone.

Alexander Rossi and Marco Sorensen led the running for much of the first hour, but Bird moved to the top of the times with around 20 minutes remaining and stayed there until the end.

Sorensen was bumped down another place by Nico Muller 10 minutes later, but the Dane responded with a couple of improved laps in the final few minutes to finish as best of the rest behind the championship leader.

Muller ended the session third, while Arthur Pic was fourth after some late position swapping with Andre Negrao.

Negrao lost fifth to Robin Frijns in the final minute, and the Brazilian then brought out a red flag just a few seconds later as he coasted to a stop on the start/finish line.

The honour of top Russian in the first session at the track went to former champion Mikhail Aleshin, who was ninth quickest.

Pos  Driver                  Team            Time       Gap
 1.  Sam Bird                ISR             1m25.910s           
 2.  Marco Sorensen          Lotus           1m26.117s  + 0.207s 
 3.  Nico Muller             Draco           1m26.261s  + 0.351s 
 4.  Arthur Pic              DAMS            1m26.645s  + 0.735s 
 5.  Robin Frijns            Fortec          1m26.724s  + 0.814s 
 6.  Andre Negrao            Draco           1m26.838s  + 0.928s 
 7.  Kevin Magnussen         Carlin          1m27.123s  + 1.213s 
 8.  Cesar Ramos             Lotus           1m27.124s  + 1.214s 
 9.  Mikhail Aleshin         RFR             1m27.307s  + 1.397s 
10.  Carlos Huertas          Fortec          1m27.346s  + 1.436s 
11.  Alexander Rossi         Arden Caterham  1m27.370s  + 1.460s 
12.  Nick Yelloly            Comtec          1m27.496s  + 1.586s 
13.  Antonto Felix da Costa  Arden Caterham  1m27.545s  + 1.635s 
14.  Jake Rosenzweig         ISR             1m27.606s  + 1.696s 
15.  Walter Grubmuller       P1              1m27.678s  + 1.768s 
16.  Jules Bianchi           Tech 1          1m27.685s  + 1.775s 
17.  Lucas Foresti           DAMS            1m27.749s  + 1.839s 
18.  Yann Cunha              Pons            1m27.992s  + 2.082s 
19.  Kevin Korjus            Tech 1          1m28.050s  + 2.140s 
20.  Vittorio Ghirelli       Comtec          1m28.074s  + 2.164s 
21.  Will Stevens            Carlin          1m28.350s  + 2.440s 
22.  Anton Nebylitskiy       RFR             1m28.541s  + 2.631s 
23.  Sergey Sirotkin         BVM Traget      1m28.611s  + 2.701s 
24.  Zoel Amberg             Pons            1m28.723s  + 2.813s 
25.  Daniil Move             P1              1m28.806s  + 2.896s 
26.  Nikolay Martsenko       BVM Target      1m28.927s  + 3.017s