Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes remained out of touch from their rivals in Saturday’s final free practice session before this afternoon’s qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix.
The Brit clocked in with a lap in 1m33.067s that put him 0.254s clear of team mate Valtteri Bottas, while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel struggled once again to keep up, the German driver and team mate Kimi Raikkonen unable to challenge their silver Arrows counterparts.
2018 Russian Grand Prix – Free Practice 3
1
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
1:33.067s
13
2
Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes
1:33.321s
+ 0.254s
16
3
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
1:33.667s
+ 0.600s
14
4
Kimi Räikkönen
Ferrari
1:33.688s
+ 0.621s
11
5
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
1:33.937s
+ 0.870s
11
6
Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull
1:34.394s
+ 1.327s
14
7
Charles Leclerc
Sauber
1:34.628s
+ 1.561s
15
8
Esteban Ocon
Force India
1:34.809s
+ 1.742s
16
9
Kevin Magnussen
Haas
1:34.820s
+ 1.753s
15
10
Sergio Pérez
Force India
1:34.916s
+ 1.849s
14
11
Carlos Sainz
Renault
1:34.988s
+ 1.921s
13
12
Pierre Gasly
Toro Rosso
1:35.125s
+ 2.058s
21
13
Romain Grosjean
Haas
1:35.185s
+ 2.118s
18
14
Nico Hülkenberg
Renault
1:35.213s
+ 2.146s
12
15
Marcus Ericsson
Sauber
1:35.370s
+ 2.303s
16
16
Brendon Hartley
Toro Rosso
1:36.033s
+ 2.966s
22
17
Sergey Sirotkin
Williams
1:36.071s
+ 3.004s
16
18
Lance Stroll
Williams
1:36.274s
+ 3.207s
20
19
Stoffel Vandoorne
McLaren
1:36.597s
+ 3.530s
14
20
Fernando Alonso
McLaren
1:36.992s
+ 3.925s
21
Saturday’s ultimate free practice session kicked off under blue skies and warm temperatures, with much of the focus on Ferrari, the Scuderia’s SF71-H appearing way down on speed at Sochi compared to Mercedes’ W09.
Kimi Raikkonen set the early pace on Pirelli’s hypersoft, putting himself clear of the field by almost 2 seconds with a lap in 1m35.074s that team mate Sebastian Vettel was quick to overhaul when he laid down a 1m33.8s.
Mercedes Valtteri Bottas also got himself up to speed, splitting the red cars while Hamilton, Friday’s fastest man, was still warming up.
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Gradually, the Silver Arrows pair gathered strength and speed, with Bottas edging Vettel and then Hamilton moving ahead of both with a 1m33.496.
Force India’s Sergio Perez placed himself P5 as Red Bull’s chargers lingered in the mid-field, still working on their respective set-ups.
As usual, the latter part of FP3 was devoted to qualifying simulations for the big guns. Vettel pushed the boundaries a bit too much on the hypersoft, and ran wide at Turn 4.
A cleaner lap from Bottas put the Finn at the top of the timesheet, but he was quickly demoted to second when Hamilton put in a fast one in 1m33.067s, which was also a new track record for Sochi.
That effort was another clear indication that Mercedes is likely to run away with qualifying this afternoon.
Vettel tried once again to up the pace, but to no avail, the Ferrari driver remaining over half a second adrift as he appeared to struggle in the final part of the circuit.
The final minutes of running saw Verstappen and Ricciardo line up fifth and sixth behind the Mercedes-Ferrari barrage, while Sauber’s Charles Leclerc concluded the morning as best of the rest, nicely improving on his Friday form.
Force India’s Esteban Ocon, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez completed the top ten.
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