Valtteri Bottas set the pace in opening practice for the Russian Grand Prix which was disrupted by a crash for Nicholas L𒐪atไifi, while Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton was only 19th.

Bottas was the only driver to dip under the 1m35s bracket to set a 1m34.923s on the Soft tyre, ꦆheading Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo by half a 🌊second.

With the Mercedes drivers conducting꧑ alternative programmes in FP1, Hamilton completed the majority of the session on the Hard tyre and looked to be focusing on long runs as he🧜 finished well adrift and 2.793s off the pace.

Hamilton holds a 55-point advantage over Bottas in the championship and heads into this weekendꦰ’s race at Sochi ꦛwith his first opportunity to draw level with Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 91 career victories.

Red Bull’s Max Verstapp❀en was a tenth further behind his former teammate Ricciardo as he finished third-quickest in the morning, ahead of the Racing Point dᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚuo led by Sergio Perez.

Esteban Ocon wa💎s sixth-fastest in the other Renault, edging out home-favourite Daniil Kvyat’s AlphaTauri by just under two-tenths.

The rest of the 😼top 10 was made up of Alexander Albon’s Red Bull, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Pieꦺrre Gasly in the second AlphaTauri.

Outside of the top-10 came Charles Leclerc and the McLaren pair of Carlos Sainz - who failed to reappear after an early tag with the wall🐓 following a spin - and Lando Norris.

The Alfa Romeos of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen followed in 14th and 15th, ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, Williams driver George Russel👍l and 🌊Romain Grosjean.

Hamilton finished 19th on a set on flat-spotted set of Hards following an early lock-up, only ahead of ♑Latifi, who caused a red flag when he crashed his Williams during his first Soft tyre run.

The incident caused the s🔯ession to be halted for a short period with 35 minutes remaining on 🐭the clock.

Latifi lost contr✱ol of his FW35 at Turn 10 and spun rearwards into the barriers on the exit of the corner.

The hefty impact resulted in some significant damage to the backend o♍f his car, forcing the Canadian to miss the rest of the session and be anchored to the b🎃ottom of the FP1 timesheets.