Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel edged Red Bull’s Max Verstappen during the opening practice session for Formula 1’s Russian Grand Prix.
Vettel used Pirelli’s Hypersoft tyres to record a time of 1:34.488 in warm conditions at the Sochi Autodrom as he finished 0.050s clear of Verstappen.
Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas used Soft tyres to place third and fourth, the Briton three-tenths of a second slower than title rival Vettel.
Daniel Ricciardo sat out the latter half of the session as Red Bull investigated a problem with his RB14, after it began smoking at the rear as it was being pulled back into the garage, but his early time was good enough for fifth.
Esteban Ocon was a promising sixth for Force India, with Kimi Raikkonen a low-key seventh, albeit running the Ultrasoft tyres compared to the Hypers employed by Vettel.
Kevin Magnussen, whose 2019 seat was confirmed by Haas on Friday morning, was eighth, in front of Nico Hulkenberg.
Hulkenberg returned to the garage during the closing stages due to a suspected exhaust leak, while 2019 Sauber racer Antonio Giovinazzi rounded out the top 10.
The newly re-signed Romain Grosjean was 11th, ahead of Pierre Gasly, while McLaren young gun Lando Norris recovered from a Turn 7 spin to place 13th.
Charles Leclerc endured a scruffy session, complaining of understeer and repeatedly running wide, as he took 14th, ahead of Renault development driver Artem Markelov, making his FP1 debut on home ground.
Stoffel Vandoorne took 16th, in front of Force India tester Nicholas Latifi and Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin.
Brendon Hartley and Lance Stroll completed the running order, with the Canadian suffering a spin midway through the session while attempting to improve on Hypersofts.
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