Lewis Hamilton kept Mercedes ahead in the final practice session in 2018 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix from teammate Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari drivers.
Hamilton had the edge in FP3 at Sochi on Saturday with a 1m33.067s lap time to finish 0.254s ahead of Bottas (1m33.321s) but crucially he was more than half a second ahead of the Ferrari drivers.
Sebastian Vettel couldn’t improve on his quick lap due to a mistake in Turn 8 and was forced to opt for a second lap on degrading tyres. He was beaten by Kimi Raikkonen initially but a second flaying lap helped Vettel to retake third.
The German though still was 0.600s behind Hamilton with a 1m33.667s as Raikkonen slotted in fifth with a 1m33.688s. The positive for Ferrari was they managed to get ahead of the Red Bull Racing drivers in the order.
Max Verstappen led the way again with a 1m33.937s as Daniel Ricciardo slotted in sixth with a late improvement to a 1m34.394s. Sauber’s Charles Leclerc had the biggest improvement from Friday.
The Monegasque leapt into seventh to finish as the best of the rest with a 1m34.628s ahead of Racing Point Force India’s Esteban Ocon (1m34.809s) who pushed Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m34.820s) and Sergio Perez (1m34.916s) to ninth and 10th respectively.
The late improvement from Ricciardo pushed Renault’s Carlos Sainz (1m34.988s) outside the Top 10 in 11th as Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly (1m35.125s) also improved with a late lap to demote Haas’ Romain Grosjean (1m35.185s) to 13th.
The Frenchman was shown to have suffered a spin in replays after the session. Behind Grosjean was Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m35.213s) in 14th with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson (1m35.370s) in 15th from Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartely (1m36.033s).
The back of the grid was filled with the two Williams and McLaren drivers with Sergey Sirotkin (1m36.071s) in 17th leading Lance Stroll (1m36.274s), Stoffel Vandoorne (1m36.597s) and Fernando Alonso (1m36.992s).
