Lewis Hamilton tops third practice at the Russian Grand Prix

At the last of the practice sessions in Sochi Autodrom, Lewis Hamilton was able to take the battle to Valtteri Bottas, gaining his first top spot of this weekend. Bottas finished in second.

Carlos Sainz Jr. continued to be strong, putting his car into third. He would be glad about that after crashing in the Friday’s morning session. Lando Norris had difficulties today and was unable to put in a flying lap, abandoning it due to traffic. He finished bottom of the pack in twentieth.

Esteban Ocon was the top Renault DP World F1 Team car in fourth. His team-mate Daniel Ricciardo looked to match his pace but was distracted on his flying lap by issues with his wing mirror which lost him a couple of a tenths. He finished in tenth.

Sergio Perez ended up being the best of the BWT Racing Point Formula One Team cars. He was able to put himself into fifth where his team-mate Lance Stroll could only get ninth, half a second behind.

Max Verstappen was able to put his weak Friday performance behind him to get sixth place. Alexander Albon became victim of new track limits rules put in place. During the session, it was announced that lap times will be invalidated by the stewards for exceeding track limits at Turn 2 and Turn 18. He exceeded at Turn 18 and his time was deleted when he was running in seventh so he could only get nineteenth. 

Sebastian Vettel put in a good performance, the Scuderia Ferrari has been somewhat lacking in previous weeks, but he was able to put himself into seventh. Charles Leclerc wasn’t able to break the top ten and sits in twelfth. 

There wasn’t much in it between the Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda team. They only finished less than one tenth between each other with Daniil Kvyat in nineth and Pierre Gasly in eleventh. Pierre Gasly did spin at turn 15 after having issues with the kerb. 

George Russell was also another driver that fell foul to the track limits. He had a time deleted but wasn’t as marred as Albon. He finished in thirteenth with this Williams Racing team-mate Nicholas Latifi in fifteenth.

Romain Grosjean had a mixed session. He complained on the radio of issues with his balance in what can be described as a colourful way. He was able to get in a good lap in fourteenth but was still not happy in the end as he took a spin at turn 15. Haas F1 Team team-mate Kevin Magnussen finished in sixteenth. 

Lastly, Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN weren’t able to do anything special, over two seconds away from the front runners. Antonio Giovinazzi came in seventeenth with team-mate Kimi Räikkönen just behind him in eighteenth.