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F1 Russian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 and FP2
All of the thrilling FP1 and FP2 action from the Sochi circuit
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Ah, he had a spin coming into the pitlane. "I don't know what happened, the rear just locked," Norris reports.
Norris seems to have knocked his front wing on his in-lap. That might not buff out...
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"This car is so nervous," Tsunoda says over the radio. Aren't we all, Yuki?
Checkered flag
And that's it for FP1. Bottas is top, ahead of Hamilton, Verstappen, Leclerc, Vettel and Gasly.
It seems that the teams are trying to get as much running in as possible if Saturday proves to be wet - which is on the forecast.
Meanwhile, the majority of midfield soft-tyre runners have dropped into the high 1m41s-low 1m42s. Hard tyre pace is about the same.
Looking at these longer-run laptimes, Russell - in P17 - is on a similar hard-tyre pace with a number of upper-midfield runners.
We've got 10 minutes of FP1 remaining.
Verstappen goes third fastest on those softs, going quickest in Sector 2 but can't overturn Bottas' advantage in the first and last sectors.
The Mercedes duo, meanwhile, has gone out on the hard compound tyre.
Verstappen's now going to go on a quicker one with some fresh soft tyres. A few dabs of purple on the timing screen so far...
Nothing huge in the way of lap time improvements as the drivers do some continued running on the softs.
Green flag
We had a VSC to pick up a tiny bit of debris. We are now green once again.
Quite a few track limits violations cropping up in the race control timing box - it's going to be a weekend of this...
Charles Leclerc, who produced the headlines yesterday when he professed his enjoyment of eclairs in Thursday's presser, has gone third.
Hamilton shuffles up to second, 0.2s off Bottas' headline time.
Stopwatch
Max E. Verstappen does a 1m35.616s on softs to stay top, but Bottas smashes that with a trio of purple sectors and sets a 1m34.427s - also on softs.
We get a replay of Pierre Gasly leaping over the sausage kerb and navigating the bollards. Track limits sure are fun...
Just the AlphaTauri duo on track right now, as the rest of the field comes in for a cup of tea and a custard cream.
Stopwatch
The lag can't have been too bad, Verstappen does a 1m36.055s to go top.
Quote
"The recharge mode is horrible," says Verstappen, complaining of throttle lag.
Norris now goes fourth, half a second off Bottas' benchmark time.
Verstappen finally does something in this session, going P4 for a moment before the Alpines nudge him down to P6.
F1 provides a tutorial of how to navigate the Turn 2 bollards. I don't want to harp on about grass/gravel, but...
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Leclerc reports "something strange" and is asked to box.
Stopwatch
Bottas goes top once again, a 1m36.412s. Vettel has moved up to fourth, ahead of Ocon, as Norris goes P5.
Ocon gets himself up to fourth, as Alpine is hoping for a return to its Hungary form. The current top six is Leclerc, Hamilton, Bottas, Ocon, Sainz, Vettel.
Ferrari looking solid so far, that pace in the slow-medium speed corners seems to be rather handy around this 90-degree-a-thon.
Stopwatch
It's a 1m37.147s for Bottas, but Leclerc now drops a 1m36.708s to go top.
If Valtteri Bottas is going to pick up a win in 2021, his best bet is here. He's always been good at Sochi, he got his first win here, and he's going quite quickly at the moment...
Stopwatch
Hamilton now goes quickest to underline Mercedes' pace, logging a 1m38.373s.
Stopwatch
Perez picks up top spot with a 1m38.601s.
Stopwatch
Sainz kicks us off with a 1m41.790s, which is beaten by a 1m38.626s from Leclerc.
Lewis Hamilton gets a reminder from his race engineer Pete Bonnington over where not to do a practice start. Because, you know, he got a penalty for that last year...
Carlos Sainz Jr is the winner of the "first out of the pitlane" lottery. Ocon and Leclerc follow.
Green flag
FP1 begins - let's go.
Breaking news
Here's a few of this weekend's stories to keep you sated before FP1 begins:
Read Also:
Let's not jump to conclusions at this stage of the weekend, but Mercedes has won every previous race at the Sochi Autodrom. This could all change, however...
Two weeks ago, McLaren won out at Monza - but what can we expect from this weekend? Will Sochi provide stunning, succulent action on track?
Morning everyone, hopefully you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed! We've got Sochi FP1 coming up in just over 10 minutes.
By: autosport.com
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