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FP1 Report | Charles Leclerc on top as Daniil Kvyat forced out at home Grand Prix
Charles Leclerc topped the timesheet in FP1 at the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi. The Ferrari looked fast all session and set a 1m34.462s on the soft tyre. Racing at his home Grand Prix, Daniil Kvyat will be upset as he was forced out of the session due to a problem with his fuel pressure. The times were close throughout the grid and it will be interesting to see if Leclerc can stay on top for FP2 this afternoon.
The session started slowly with teams doing short install laps and then heading straight back to the pits. The first drama came when home favorite Daniil Kvyat was forced to stop due to a fuel pressure issue which brought out the Virtual Saftey Car whilst the car was removed.
Cars started to clock more laps and Lewis Hamilton complained with an issue with his brakes but then went to set a fast lap. After some time in the pits the issue was fixed and the Mercedes driver managed to get some more quality laps in.
The two Ferrari's looked fast with Charles Leclerc spending much of the session at the top of the timesheet and Sebastian Vettel not being far off the pace.
The Mercedes looked competitive but used the medium tyre throughout the session making it hard to know their genuine one-lap pace. At the end of the session Bottas had a rear wing failure so the team will hope to fix that before this afternoons session begins.
As the session ended teams started running on higher fuel and drivers started making mistakes. Hamilton, Russell and Perez all ran wide and Daniel Ricciardo spun and crashed on the final lap of the session. He managed to limp back to the pits and will hope to have it fixed for FP2 this afternoon.
It is hard to know how fast the cars actually are as we are unaware of the fuel load the car is under. However, we can clearly tell that it is going to be a close and competitive weekend.
1. Leclerc
2. Verstappen
3. Vettel
4. Bottas
5. Hamilton
6. Albon
7. Hulkenberg
8. Ricciardo
9. Perez
10. Grosjean