Lewis Hamilton maintained Mercedes’ place at the top of the timesheets with a new lap record in final practice at the Russian Grand Prix.
In the final series of low fuel runs before qualifying, traffic and track limits were the main stories almost every driver had to back out of at least one flying lap after running wide in the middle sector.
With plenty of run-offs and only Astroturf as a deterrent, cars were running off in the medium-speed sequence of bends between Turns 4 and 10 perhaps leading to some action by the FIA before qualifying.
None of this could stop Hamilton as he posted a 1m33.067s to go a tenth faster than Sebastian Vettel’s pole time from last year and hold a two-tenths advantage over teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Ferrari still appears to be lacking pace with Vettel six-tenths down in third and unable to get a clean first lap before losing time in the final sector especially as his tyres lose grip.
Red Bull ran fifth and sixth with Max Verstappen ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, though both will drop to the back of the grid due to engine penalties meaning their running in qualifying will likely be limited to just Q1.
That offers a great chance to the midfield teams to start higher up and a great fight is emerging between Force India, Haas and Charles Leclerc, with the Monegasque claiming the ‘best of the rest’ position in FP3.
Esteban Ocon ran eighth with Kevin Magnussen between himself and teammate Sergio Perez as the Mexican rounded out the top 10.
Renault can’t be ruled out either with Carlos Sainz 11th while Toro Rosso has reverted back to an old spec Honda engine for the rest of the weekend and Pierre Gasly dropped to 12th as a result.
In total, eight-tenths covered Leclerc in P7 to teammate Marcus Ericsson P15 and with varying amounts of additional engine power to come, the order could well change again when it matters most.
At the back, both Williams’ led both McLaren’s as Sergey Sirotkin maintained his two-tenths advantage over partner Lance Stroll.
Stoffel Vandoorne also enjoyed a rare finish ahead of Fernando Alonso but the Spaniard would use the Ultrasoft tyre as he prepares to join Red Bull and Toro Rosso in those taking engine penalties.
Rather embarrassingly for the British team, however, at this current pace, Alonso might actually be starting higher up the grid because of those falling back than he would on pure pace.
Full results from Practice 3 can be seen below:
