Lewis Hamilton finished the final practice session a stunning 0.7s ahead of his team-mate. Carlos Sainz Jr impressed with 3rd as the midfield tightens up.
FP3 Report:
Bottas continued his good form early on, setting the fastest time on his first flying lap. Hamilton was not able to match him and only managed 3rd provisionally. But, during the qualifying sim runs, Hamilton eclipsed Bottas and took the fastest time of the session.
Carlos Sainz managed to finish a very impressive 3rd in a mixed session for McLaren. Norris had a few issues throughout the session and did not participate in any qualifying runs. This resulted in 20th place for the Briton. He is expected to be back on form for the next session.
Red Bull managed to improve upon their performance yesterday and Verstappen looked set to challenge the Mercedes for the fastest time. But, he backed out of his lap in sector 3 due to traffic and had to settle for 6th. Fans will be waiting to see if he can pull out a decent lap later and make amends for the Tuscan GP. Similarly to Norris, Albon was running a different programme and finished 19th.
Ocon was the highest placed Renault in 4th after both cars had a very impressive session. Ricciardo yet again showed his potential, going top before the Mercedes set their times. However, he fell back to 10th after a bizarre wing mirror malfunction hampered his final time.
The Racing Point cars remain in the mix, finishing 5th and 8th in a uneventful session for the pair. Vettel managed to get ahead of Stroll and finished an encouraging 7th. His team-mate fared less well and ended the session 12th.
Alpha Tauri remain consistent with another 9th and 11th placed finish. It wasn’t all smooth sailing though, Gasly spun in turn 3, bringing out the yellow flags. There was no damage, barring a set of ruined soft tyres.
It was another strong outing for Williams as Russell managed a solid 13th place finish. Latifi was not far behind in 15th, 0.3s behind. Both drivers managed to finish ahead of the Alfa Romeos who, had it not been for Norris and Albon, appeared to be the slowest cars around the track today.
For Haas, however, It was a session to forget. Grosjean took to the radio early on to complain about the balance of his VF-20 and almost spun into the barrier in sector 3. He would eventually finish 1 and his team-mate came 16th. A slight improvement from yesterday, but not encouraging signs at all.
A crucial qualifying session is set to take place in the next few hours. While it is difficult to overtake at Sochi, the long run to turn 1 might mean that 2nd or 3rd will have a superb opportunity to take the lead. Perhaps pole might not be the ideal result after all…
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