Rosberg tops opening session in Russia

Mercedes AMG Petronas

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time during the first-ever Formula 1 practice session at the Sochi Autodrom.

Rosberg’s time of 1:42.311 was 0.065s quicker than Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton as drivers received their first experience of the 5.8km semi-permanent street circuit.

It was a fairly low-key session, although several drivers locked up heavily into Turn two, while Turn 13 also caught a few out.

Jenson Button topped the times during the early stages of the session and ended in third position, while Fernando Alonso was fourth for Ferrari.

Kevin Magnussen ensured that McLaren had two drivers in the top five, while Sergio Pérez placed sixth for Force India.

Home driver Daniil Kvyat was seventh, while Kimi Räikkönen was eighth despite Ferrari having to tend to a front brake issue with his F14T.

Jean-Éric Vergne was ninth, while Williams’s Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top 10 despite missing the latter half of the session when a set of his tyres were damaged following a tyre blanket malfunctioning.

Red Bull endured a low-key session, with Daniel Ricciardo in 12^th and Sebastian Vettel 14^th.

Sergey Sirotkin was 17^th on his practice debut for Sauber, while Caterham’s Roberto Merhi ended the session in 19^th, despite a spin late on.

Max Chilton rounded out the runners in the sole Marussia, after the team opted not to replace Jules Bianchi for this weekend's event.