Running limited to 34 laps on Day One in Sochi
— Nico finished P2 and Lewis P7 in the morning session with no time set between them in the afternoon
— Track activity was delayed by 30 minutes in FP1 owing to a diesel spillage on track, causing further difficult conditions throughout the session
— The afternoon brought rainfall at the start of the second practice session and, with dry conditions forecast for the remainder of the weekend, the team sat out the majority of the session and did not complete any timed laps
— Both drivers ran Inters for most of FP1 with a short spell on the prime tyre to end the session. Wet tyres were used for the limited running in the afternoon
Nico Rosberg
That wasn’t a very useful day. First there was the problem with the cleaning truck, which lost some fuel. In the afternoon we had heavy rain. So not much to learn. I only tried a few starts and some wet settings. But Saturday and Sunday will be dry, so it didn’t make any sense to run any longer. We have to squeeze it all in P3 and learn everything within this hour. This should be a bit more of a challenge this weekend as Ferrari will be a threat on this track.
Lewis Hamilton
Today we had to just sit and wait. We watch and hope that the rain stops. We did learn something today as we went out and tested a wing and got some information on the single lap run. But from my point of view, there is not much to learn from today. I don’t have any concern about today as everyone is in the same boat so I hope that tomorrow and Sunday is better weather-wise. We feel confident about the weekend and we will find out more tomorrow.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical)
It was frustrating today with the loss of FP1 owing to the diesel spillage and with FP2 being very wet. Since it almost certainly won’t rain for the rest of the weekend, we chose not to do a lot of practice in the wet with the risk it gives to the cars. It’s disappointing for the spectators today. We did get a short run in on the prime tyres at the end of FP1, so we have some preliminary data to work from, but as in Japan, all our homework will need to be done in the hour of FP3 tomorrow.