Russian GP: Encouraging start for Williams Martini in FP1

Team Summary:
With the beginning of the session Felipe Massa would complete his installation lap but would then have to sit in his garage while the team fixed a clutch related issue on his car. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas was able to go out early and start his programme running very early on the supersoft tyre. While Felipe waited in his pit Valtteri was able to move up to third prior to pitting. His next run would again be on supersoft tyres seeing him finally finish in seventh while team-mate Felipe was able to finally return to the track also going out on the supersoft tyre. He would finish the session in fifth. An encouraging start for both drivers but they both were over a second off the quickest time set by Rosberg, a 1m:38.127. Both cars would be running Rexona logos specific to Russia.

Felipe Massa:
Felipe would be the last to come out for his installation lap. But the Williams team would report that Felipe had a clutch issue with his car keeping in his garage. With an hour remaining Felipe had yet to set a time. As the session progressed it would not be until twenty minutes remaining in the session that Felipe would return to the track. His first run was straight onto the supersoft tyre and into ninth. As he continued his run he would take to the run-off area at Turn Two. His next run would see him move up to seventh still on the supersoft tyres. As the session drew to a close Felipe would continue to improve moving up to fourth. With the final minutes Felipe would drop to fifth behind Raikkonen, ending the session in the same position.

Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri would come out early in the session completing his installation lap commenting to the team that the track was quite dusty. On his first run Valtteri would move up to third with a 1m:41.465. With thirty minutes remaining he was in fifth behind Kvyat. His next run would be on supersofts setting a 1m:39.860 to again be third behind the Mercedes. Forty minutes into the session and Valtteri was quickest through the speed trap. Despite this Valtteri was still 0.7 off the quickest time. Ricciardo was able to move past Valtteri seeing the Williams driver drop to fifth. This would become sixth when Raikkonen would move ahead and into fifth. With his team-mate moving into fifth Valtteri would finally finish the session in seventh.

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Time     Laps
1  Nico Rosberg		Mercedes		1m38.127s  32
2  Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		1m38.849s  31
3  Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari			1m39.175s  19
4  Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari			1m39.332s  18
5  Felipe Massa		Williams-Mercedes	1m39.365s  14
6  Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1m39.650s  24
7  Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1m39.802s  34
8  Daniil Kvyat		Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1m40.218s  26
9  Sergio Perez		Force India-Mercedes	1m40.287s  22
10 Carlos Sainz		Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1m40.654s  21
11 Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda		1m40.663s  19
12 Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda		1m40.771s  18
13 Sergey Sirotkin	Renault			1m40.898s  24
14 Felipe Nasr		Sauber-Ferrari		1m41.085s  21
15 Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1m41.134s  22
16 Esteban Gutierrez	Haas-Ferrari		1m41.238s  18
17 Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari		1m41.385s  20
18 Jolyon Palmer	Renault			1m41.671s  25
19 Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari		1m41.962s  22
20 Pascal Wehrlein	Manor-Mercedes		1m42.483s  21
21 Rio Haryanto		Manor-Mercedes		1m42.687s  8
22 Alfonso Celis	Force India-Mercedes	1m43.432s  23