After tiptoeing around, Sebastian Vettel summed it up when he said over team radio: “What a mess.”
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The drivers had to go out onto a dry track on intermediate and wet tyres because the area around turn eight was so treacherous. They had to almost back off completely to try and negotiate the spill.
It allowed McLaren to top the times for a while, but no truly competitive laps could be posted. Nico Hulkenberg ended fastest in his Force India but it was a meaningless accolade.
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg struggles in the wet
Sergey Vorobyev, the race promoter in Sochi, said: “All the practice sessions are running according to schedule, so the incident is not critical.
“There was a diesel spill and it took us some time to clean it – which caused the delay. So there will be an investigation and it is an internal matter now.”
Second practice was even worse. It began with rain and clouds which almost brought darkness to the Sochi Autodrom. The area around the spillage was even more hazardous than the rest of the track.
With 20 minutes remaining, only three drivers had bothered to set a lap time. Felipe Massa ended the session fastest.
The teams will be hoping for some dry running on Saturday morning – and a clean track – to make up for lost time.