Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in final Russian GP practice

As predicted, and right on script, Valtteri Bottas leads the Friday practice times while the track gets rubbered in, and then his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton destroys him the rest of the weekend.

Hamilton turned a lap of 1m33.279s to top the final practice for the Russian GP by a whopping 0.776s over Bottas.

So, advantage Hamilton? Both he and Bottas left time out there, and it could really come down to the smallest of margins and who can nail their line through a couple of corners. Hamilton is looking mighty through the middle sector, but definitely has work to do in the opening corners.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was 3rd quick for McLaren  while a surprising Esteban Ocon was 4th for Renault.

Sergio Perez rounded out the top-5 for Racing Point.

Plenty of drivers didn’t get a clean lap when Grosjean spun in turn 15 while they were on their fast lap, plenty left time out there. All of which bodes very well for qualifying later on.

Practice 3 Results

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:33.279 +0.000s 16
2 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:34.055 +0.776s 19
3 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren Renault 1:34.096 +0.817s 17
4 31 Esteban Ocon Renault 1:34.239 +0.960s 13
5 11 Sergio Perez Racing Point Mercedes 1:34.252 +0.973s 14
6 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda 1:34.306 +1.027s 11
7 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:34.594 +1.315s 14
8 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point Mercedes 1:34.732 +1.453s 13
9 26 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri Honda 1:34.768 +1.489s 14
10 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:34.787 +1.508s 12
11 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri Honda 1:34.792 +1.513s 12
12 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:34.806 +1.527s 14
13 63 George Russell Williams Mercedes 1:34.979 +1.700s 16
14 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:35.257 +1.978s 14
15 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes 1:35.292 +2.013s 14
16 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:35.451 +2.172s 14
17 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:35.590 +2.311s 15
18 7 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:35.599 +2.320s 15
19 23 Alexander Albon Red Bull Racing Honda 1:35.603 +2.324s 14
20 4 Lando Norris McLaren Renault 1:35.981 +2.702s 17