Mercedes bury Ferrari in final Sochi practice

The Aldo Costa cars, as predicted, have become so good as the season progressed, no one else has a chance

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas dominated final practice for the Russian GP at Sochi in their superior Aldo Costa designed Mercedes. If you were not driving an Aldo Costa designed car you were out to lunch.

Hamilton's lap of 1m33.067s was comfortably in front of Bottas by 0.254s to make up the Mercedes row of the anticipated grid.

Sebastian Vettel was third quick to lead the Ferrari row, a whopping 0.600s behind, but enough to nip his teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Ferrari, in total disarray, sent Vettel out for a final run – but they have miscalculated their timings, and the pit lane was already closed. The German had to stop and climb out of the cockpit, looking bemused – while finally some Scuderia engineers arrived on the scene to push his car back to the garage.

Max Verstappen led the Red Bull row 0.870s back while Daniel Ricciardo in the 2nd Red Bull was a massive 1.327s behind.

Charles Leclerc was best of the rest today in a return to form, ahead of Ocon, Magnussen and Perez.

Dead last were the two McLarens of Vandoorne and Alonso as the team is now even slower than the Williams, and that is saying something.

Practice 3 Results