Sirotkin to make practice debut for Sauber at Sochi

Sergey Sirotkin will make his F1 weekend debut at the 2014 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix in October after Sauber confirmed the youngster will drive for them in first practice.

The 19-year-old Russian, who acts as Sauber’s test driver, has already driven on part of what is his home Grand Prix circuit in Sochi, having completed promotional running in a 2012 Sauber C31 in September last year.

Sirotkin joined Sauber in August 2013 and was in line for a race seat with the Swiss team for 2014, but they instead opted to retain Esteban Gutierrez in their driver line-up.

He has prior experience of the Ferrari-powered C33 having completed 76 laps behind the wheel on the first day of the this year's in-season test at Bahrain.

Sauber have regularly rotated their driver line-up on a Friday, with test and reserve driver Giedo van der Garde having made seven FP1 appearances over 13 Grands Prix so far in 2014.