The first practice session at the inaugural Russian Gran Prix was a sombre affair. The Russian circuit is best compared to the former European Gran Prix track, Valencia. With the track being so new it is expected that the track will evolve by about four seconds of lap time between first practice and qualifying.
(image: Mercedes Media)
Marrussia made the decision to run only one car for the rest of the weekend out of respect for Jules Bianchi who remains in a critical decision. All of the drivers and teams are showing their support for Jules by adding supporting messages to both their cars and helmets.
Other changes to the field for the session include Robert Merhi in the Caterham instead of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergey Serotkin, Sauber’s nineteen year old Russian development driver in the car instead of Esteban Gutierez.
Drivers spent allot of time in the garage waiting for the track to rubber in. When they did go on track they discovered the track did lack allot of grip throughout throughout the session causing plenty of lock ups and even an uncharacteristic spin from the experienced McLaren driver Jenson Button.
Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of the session beating championship leading team mate Lewis Hamilton by less than a tenth. Jenson Button recovered from his spin setting the third fastest time along the way just two tenths off Rosberg. Sebastian Vettel seemed to struggle in terms of raw pace setting just the fourteenth fastest time however, he did the greatest amount of laps (30) which he may feel the benefit from on Sunday. Ferrari’s current driver, Fernando Alonso finished fourth, four tenths off Rosberg’s lap time. Other noticeable performances include Sergio Perez who finished sixth eight tenths behind Rosberg and eight tenths ahead of his teammate Nico Hulkenberg who was thirteenth.
Check back here later for our FP2 report and all the analysis and driver interviews from todays running.
