Hamilton and Mercedes still unassailable in FP3 as Ferrari struggles

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Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes remained out of touch from their rivals in Saturday's final free practice session before this afternoon's qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix.

The Brit clocked in with a lap in 1m33.067s that put him 0.254s clear of team mate Valtteri Bottas, while Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel struggled once again to keep up, the German driver and team mate Kimi Raikkonen unable to challenge their silver Arrows counterparts.

2018 Russian Grand Prix - Free Practice 3

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:33.067s		13
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:33.321s	+ 0.254s	16
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:33.667s	+ 0.600s	14
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:33.688s	+ 0.621s	11
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:33.937s	+ 0.870s	11
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:34.394s	+ 1.327s	14
7	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:34.628s	+ 1.561s	15
8	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:34.809s	+ 1.742s	16
9	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:34.820s	+ 1.753s	15
10	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:34.916s	+ 1.849s	14
11	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:34.988s	+ 1.921s	13
12	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:35.125s	+ 2.058s	21
13	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:35.185s	+ 2.118s	18
14	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:35.213s	+ 2.146s	12
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:35.370s	+ 2.303s	16
16	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:36.033s	+ 2.966s	22
17	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:36.071s	+ 3.004s	16
18	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:36.274s	+ 3.207s	20
19	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:36.597s	+ 3.530s	14
20	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:36.992s	+ 3.925s	21

Saturday's ultimate free practice session kicked off under blue skies and warm temperatures, with much of the focus on Ferrari, the Scuderia's SF71-H appearing way down on speed at Sochi compared to Mercedes' W09.

Kimi Raikkonen set the early pace on Pirelli's hypersoft, putting himself clear of the field by almost 2 seconds with a lap in 1m35.074s that team mate Sebastian Vettel was quick to overhaul when he laid down a 1m33.8s.

Mercedes Valtteri Bottas also got himself up to speed, splitting the red cars while Hamilton, Friday's fastest man, was still warming up.

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Gradually, the Silver Arrows pair gathered strength and speed, with Bottas edging Vettel and then Hamilton moving ahead of both with a 1m33.496.

Force India's Sergio Perez placed himself P5 as Red Bull's chargers lingered in the mid-field, still working on their respective set-ups.

As usual, the latter part of FP3 was devoted to qualifying simulations for the big guns. Vettel pushed the boundaries a bit too much on the hypersoft, and ran wide at Turn 4.

A cleaner lap from Bottas put the Finn at the top of the timesheet, but he was quickly demoted to second when Hamilton put in a fast one in 1m33.067s, which was also a new track record for Sochi.

That effort was another clear indication that Mercedes is likely to run away with qualifying this afternoon.

Vettel tried once again to up the pace, but to no avail, the Ferrari driver remaining over half a second adrift as he appeared to struggle in the final part of the circuit.

The final minutes of running saw Verstappen and Ricciardo line up fifth and sixth behind the Mercedes-Ferrari barrage, while Sauber's Charles Leclerc concluded the morning as best of the rest, nicely improving on his Friday form.

Force India's Esteban Ocon, Haas' Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez completed the top ten.

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Michael Delaney