SOCHI, April 29. /TASS/. Team Ferrari pilots Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will start the Formula One Russia Grand Prix, held over this weekend in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, with new engines, according to Friday’s report from FIA F1 Technical Delegate.
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"The internal combustion engine used by the above drivers is one of the five new internal combustion engines allowed for the 2016 Championship season," the report said.
The change of Ferrari engines yielded results on Friday afternoon, when Germany’s four-time World Champion Vettel showed the second best result in the afternoon’s second free practice (1 minute 38.235 seconds), while his teammate Raikkonen clocked the fourth best time on the Sochi lap (1 minute 38.793 seconds).
However, the German driver’s car went still half an hour into the 90-minute session of the second practice as he finished the last turn of the circuit coming out on the starting grid near the pit-lane wall. Later reports suggested that his Ferrari rolled to a halt after the cut-out in electronics of the car, equipped with new SF-16H engine.
Three-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton was the one to clock the best result on Friday afternoon during the Free Practice 2 session.
Team Mercedes pilot Hamilton, the winner of the two previous Sochi GP races, showed the lap time of 1 minute 37.583 seconds. The Englishman, however, had a couple of incidents during his runs on the Sochi circuit as he first sent his car running wide in one of the turns and then lost control of the racing bolide going into a spin.
His German teammate Nico Rosberg, who was the fastest in the Free Practice 1 on Friday morning, showed the third result of 1 minute 38.450 seconds in the second practice.
This year Russia is holding its FIA Formula One racing Grand Prix for the first time in spring, namely on April 29-May 1, as compared with the two previous races held in autumn of 2014 and 2015 in Sochi.
A total of 21 races had been scheduled for the 2016 FIA F1 Championship, with Sochi GP listed fourth on the calendar.