Vettel over Verstappen in opening practice for Russian GP

Vettel fastest when it does not count

Sebastien Vettel almost has to win out to stop Lewis Hamilton from winning the 2018 F1 title. Although Friday morning practice is usually just a track cleaning session, it was Vettel atop the timesheets when the session was over.

Vettel's lap of 1m34.488s was just 0.050s faster than Red Bull's Max Verstappen was 2nd quick.

Hamilton, who has a 40 point lead in the championship and sandbagging for now, was third quick 0.330s behind Vettel in his unbeatable Aldo Costa designed Mercedes.

Valtteri Bottas in the 2nd Mercedes and Daniel Ricciardo in the 2nd Red Bull rounded out the top-5.

Practice 1 Results

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:34.488	+0.000s	19
2	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Renault	1:34.538	+0.050s	22
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:34.818	+0.330s	23
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:34.999	+0.511s	28
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Renault	1:35.524	+1.036s	11
6	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India Mercedes	1:35.663	+1.175s	24
7	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:35.696	+1.208s	19
8	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:36.196	+1.708s	21
9	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:36.274	+1.786s	18
10	36	Antonio Giovinazzi	Sauber Ferrari	1:36.712	+2.224s	22
11	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:36.816	+2.328s	23
12	10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:36.944	+2.456s	25
13	47	Lando Norris	McLaren Renault	1:37.022	+2.534s	25
14	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber Ferrari	1:37.054	+2.566s	24
15	46	Artem Markelov	Renault	1:37.183	+2.695s	22
16	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren Renault	1:37.187	+2.699s	27
17	34	Nicholas Latifi	Force India Mercedes	1:37.206	+2.718s	24
18	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Mercedes	1:37.225	+2.737s	25
19	28	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:37.944	+3.456s	28
20	18	Lance Stroll	Williams Mercedes	1:39.137	+4.649s	13