David Coulthard
BBC F1 co-commentator

"Sebastian Vettel is racing for himself out there, he might be leaving Red Bull at the end of the season but he is not making it easy for Daniel Ricciardo."

The Red Bulls are making good progress in this race. Both have passed the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne with Sebastian Vettel sixth and Daniel Ricciardo seventh. Lewis Hamilton leads by 2.5 seconds.

David Coulthard
BBC F1 co-commentator

"Initially Hamilton made a great getaway, it was a little bit surprising that he had to lift through turn one. Rosberg picked up the slipstream and the speed he tried to go through the corner meant he went so wide. He got a huge advantage and the risk was always the flat spotting. You never like to see anyone running wide but in that incident he has given Hamilton a huge advantage."

Jenson Button's engineer tells his charge that Fernando Alonso is just 0.7 seconds behind. The McLaren driver replies: "I don't need reminding when he's this close." The duo are fighting over third position.

Juve93Cule:, external That opening lap was insane!!! The speed all the cars were going around those high speed corners was crazy!!!

Ross Middleton:, external Well Rosberg was the architect of his own downfall there.

Chris:, external Interesting to see how Nico copes with coming from the back now, first time he's had to do that.

Kevin Magnussen uses DRS to breeze past the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne to regain fifth. Felipe Massa sets the fastest lap of the race, but the Williams drive is down in 20th after having to make an early pit stop.

Sensational racing from Jean-Eric Vergne who is fighting for his career. The Frenchman bravely hangs on around the outside of Turn Three to pass Kevin Magnussen. "Stand up and applaud Jean-Eric Vergne," says BBC F1 co-commentator David Coulthard. That was for fifth.

Daniil Kvyat continues to go backwards, as Sebastian Vettel and then Daniel Ricciardo make their way past the Russian who is now down to ninth. Lewis Hamilton sets the fastest lap of the race to lead by 2.2 seconds.

Nico Rosberg: "What's the strategy now?"

Engineer's response: "We think we're going to have to go to the end on these tyres now."

Nico Rosberg pits at the end of the first lap, with Lewis Hamilton leading and Valtteri Bottas moving into second. Plenty of cars went off at Turn One, mixing the field up. It's not been a great start for Russian Daniil Kvyat who has dropped from fifth to seventh.

Lewis Hamilton cuts across the track at the star to defend his position from Nico Rosberg to maintain the lead but Rosberg dips into the slipstream and then pulls alongside his team-mate! The German noses in front, but tries to be the last of the late brakers and locks up heavily! He's first into the corner, but then runs well wide and rejoins still in the lead. "You have to give the position back Nico," comes the message on the radio. He does so, but it gets worse for the Mercedes driver who has a flat-spot on his tyres, unsurprisingly, and has no choice but to pit.

Lewis Hamilton has lined his car up on the grid at a slight angle, pointed towards his team-mate Nico Rosberg.

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Lewis Hamilton leads the field off the grid for the formation lap, with everyone making it away cleanly.

Russia's wait for Formula 1 on their shores is over. Let the formation lap of the inaugural Russian Grand Prix begin!

Marussia on Twitter, external: Thank you world. So much love for @Jules_Bianchi #JB17 #RacingForJules.

Image source, Getty Images

Ferrari's record-setting points streak ended at the Japanese Grand Prix, as they failed to finish in the top-10 for the first time in 81 races, a streak that began way back at the 2010 German Grand Prix - which incidentally was the team's last one-two finish to-date. Fernando Alonso retired after two laps at Suzuka while Kimi Raikkonen finished 12th.

When asked if today's race is likely to see most drivers favouring a one-stop strategy, Williams' head of vehicle performance Rob Smedley said: "Yeah, I think so. The tyres are very conservative for this type of track surface. They get better and better, every lap you do on them. You just go quicker and quicker."

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Sochi

"Tyre degradation has been pretty much non-existent this weekend, the smooth surface of the Sochi track taking very little out of the 'soft' and 'medium' tyres brought by Pirelli, who had to guess at the circuit's demands because they did not have the chance to test the asphalt before coming here.

"Most are predicting a simple one-stop race, going as long as possible on the faster 'soft' - about 20 laps, the teams suspect - before switching to the medium for the duration. But there were a few dissenting voices.

"McLaren's Jenson Button said: 'I don't think you're going to be seeing a one-stop race. Looking at the amount of laps people are putting on a set of tyres in qualifying I think you're going to be looking at more stops. I think you'll see overtaking. DRS (overtaking aid) into Turn 13 won't be much help but into Turn One it could be very useful.'"

Image source, Getty Images

At 5.872km, the new Sochi Autodrom is the longest Hermann Tilke-designed track on the 2014 calendar, and shorter only than Britain's Silverstone and Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps. Will it be able to match the excitement of those two legendary circuits?