Valteri Botas the Mercedes driver recorded the best time in the first free practice before the Russian Grand Prix in Formula 1. Thus, the Finn extended his series of winning opening sessions to six.
Second in the first 90 minutes of “Sochi” was Daniel Ricardo with Renault, who finished at 0.507 from Botas, while the trio was filled by Max Verstappen, who scored 0.654 less than that of the Finn.
Hamilton was only 19th, after a pilot error in the middle of the session
Valteri Botas‘ teammate Lewis Hamilton was only 19th in the opening weekend session after making a pilot error in the middle of the session and had to drive the entire second half of the training session with a huge flat-spot tire. Behind the Briton was only the representative of Williams Nicola Latifi, who hit the wall on the tenth turn 40 minutes before the end of the session, which necessitated the removal of the red flag.
In addition to Latifi, Carlos Sainz Jr. found himself in the guardrails, but unlike the Canadian, the McLaren driver managed to return to the pits, but his mechanics were not able to restore his car in time so that he could return to the track. before the checkered flag.
| Position | Name | Team | Time |
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:34.923 |
| 2 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | +0.507s |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | +0.654s |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | +0.873 |
| 5 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | +0.873 |
