Russian Grand Prix – Free Practice 3: Hamilton Leads the Way

With 50 minutes remaining, Lando Norris was the first to set a time behind the wheel of his McLaren. Valtteri Bottas also decided to head out a few minutes later, but the Finn had a scare by missing a braking point at the start of the second sector, which caused him to go very wide.

The Mercedes on their way to their 7th Russian victory

The battle for pole position and victory will most likely be only between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas this weekend. Once again, the Mercedes seems to be on another planet in Russia.

If Valtteri Bottas did not manage to make a good lap with the track that had improved, Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, completed a very good lap with a 1’33’279, which makes him finish this session 7 tenths ahead of his garage neighbor.

The AlphaTauris perform well.

After 30 minutes of the session, the AlphaTauri team occupied the 3rd and 5th positions respectively by Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat. It is known that the Italian team’s car is very comfortable on straights, and it fully benefited from this characteristic in the first sector with the long straight of the track.

Despite a good time, the Normand had a bit of a scare at turn number 16 when the rear of his car started to spin very early. Fortunately, he managed to stop it before his single-seater hit the barriers.

Bothered by Sergio Perez’s Racing Point on his last lap, the Frenchman finally finishes in 11th position, just behind his garage neighbor who is in 9th position.

Can Haas hope for something?

In great difficulty since the beginning of the season, Günther Steiner stated at the beginning of the week that the team had made numerous improvements to the car that would allow it to gain some pace. While Haas has often been a solid midfield team, since 2019 it has occupied the last positions. In order to gradually climb out of the back of the pack, Haas aims to beat Alfa Romeo, which is very likely their closest rival and a good benchmark for improvement since both teams share the same Ferrari engine and the problems that come with it.

However, like Pierre Gasly, Romain Grosjean had a small spin at turn number 16, proving that this Haas remains very difficult to drive, as his frustration on the radio showed. 14th at the end of the session, can the Frenchman hope to make it to Q2 this weekend?

Also noteworthy is the strong performance of Sebastian Vettel and Esteban Ocon, who each finished ahead of their teammate. While the German has little chance of making it to the podium this weekend, the Frenchman can hope for a good result with a Renault that seems very comfortable on this Sochi track. Watch out for Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez as well, who showed very good pace during this third free practice session by finishing ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

Results of FP3: