Hamilton fastest from Bottas, Sainz in F1 Russian GP FP3

Lewis Hamilton moved to the top of the timesheets for the first time at the Russian Grand Prix, as he headed Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Valtteri Bottas in final practice.

After Bottas led the way in both sessions on Friday, Hamilton turned the tables on the Finn in the final 60-minute practice session to finish 0.776s clear during the qualifying simulations.

Bottas’ time of a 1m34.055 was half a second slower than the best lap he set on Friday, suggesting he has plenty of time up his sleeve going into qualifying.

Behind the dominant Mercedes duo, Carlos Sainz was an impressive third for McLaren, some eight-tenths off Hamilton’s benchmark pace.

Despite running an older-spec nose and front wing on his MCL35, Sainz was a tenth faster than Esteban Ocon’s Renault and the lead Racing Point of Sergio Perez to head the tight midfield battle.

Max Verstappen wound up sixth-fastest for Red Bull but was hampered by traffic on his final run, having posted the fastest first sector of all before aborting his run.

Ferrari were once again inside the top 10 with Sebastian Vettel an encouraging seventh, while Lance Stroll, Daniel Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo made up the rest of the first half of the timing screen.

Alex Albon was a lowly 19th in the sister Red Bull after seeing his laptime deleted for track limits at Turn 2 on what proved to be a scruffy lap, while Lando Norris was slowest of all in the upgraded McLaren after backing out of his final Soft tyre flying lap.

FULL FINAL PRACTICE RESULTS FOR THE 2020 F1 RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX.