Vettel quickest in FP1 of Russian Grand Prix!

Sebastian Vettel comes out on top in the first practice session for the Russian Grand Prix! The Ferrari driver set a 1:34.488; nearly half a second quicker than second placed Max Verstappen.

Vettel smashed Verstappen's time by nearly half a second as the Ferrari star moved to the top of the leaderboard - in a race weekend where he needs to be on top for all of it.

Lewis Hamilton could only manage third on the grid for Mercedes; 0.3 seconds off his championship rival Vettel.

The Red Bulls came out in force and with their first laps, made it a blue one-two at the top.

However, Daniel Ricciardo's car had a problem, with burning coming from the Aussie's car and it was the end of the session - 45 minutes in.

His Red Bull had lots of steam coming from it and there was no information being given until the end of the session by Ricciardo or his team - but the session looked over pretty swiftly for the Aussie.

"The exhaust was hot, but it's just a precaution. We didn't want to risk anything, so we're just double-checking," Ricciardo told Sky F1.

Ricciardo was driving well in FP1 and still managed P5 in the session, but another reliability problem for the departing Red Bull man means his session was cut short early.

Verstappen went quickest with a 1:34.960 as he looks to celebrate his birthday with a win in Sochi.

Lando Norris was replacing Fernando Alonso for McLaren and he spun out early on but replied "Yeah, I'm fine, the car's good," when asked by the team radio.

On the morning where Haas announced that Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen will be driving for them in 2019, the two drivers finished in the top ten.

Antonio Giovinazzi replaced Marcus Ericsson for the session, much like he'll be doing next season as he is ready to partner Kimi Raikkonen for 2019.

Giovinazzi's partner for FP1, Charles Leclerc reported back to Sauber: "I'm struggling a lot" - when going wide on a corner.

Williams driver Sergey Sirotkin was joined by fellow Russian driver Artem Markelov, who was driving for Renault, with the two Russians enjoying Sochi in their home country.

The other Renault man Nico Hulkenberg had a problem with his car and was told to "box" the lap towards the conclusion of the session by the team radio.