Valtteri Bottas set the pace in opening practice for the Russian Grand Prix which was disrupted by a crash for Nicholas Latifi, whღ༺ile 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 𒀰Soft tyre, heading Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo by half a second.

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

Hamilton holds a 55-point advantage over Bottas in the champions꧟hip and heads into this weekend’s race at Sochi with his first opportunity to draw level with Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 𝔉91 career victories.

Red Bull’s Maxꦆ Verstappen was a tenth further be⛦hind his former teammate Ricciardo as he finished third-quickest in the morning, ahead of the Racing Point duo led by Sergio Perez.

Esteban Ocon was sixth-f🔜astest 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 Pierre Gasly i💯n the second AlౠphaTauri.

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.

T🐎he Alfa Romeos of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen followed in 14th and 15th, ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, Williams driver George Russell and Romain Grosjean.

Hamilton finished 19th on a ꦉset on fl🌜at-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 c♑aused the session to be halted fo🔴r a short period with 35 minutes remaining on the clock.

Latifi lost control of his FW35 at Turn 10 and spun rearwards into the barriers on the ex🃏🥀it of the corner.

The hefty impact resulted in some significant damage to the back𓃲end of his car, forcꦅing the Canadian to miss the rest of the session and be anchored to the bottom of the FP1 timesheets.