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Lewis Hamilton was the pacesetter once again at the new Sochi circuit, heading team-mate Nico Rosberg and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas in Saturday’s final practice session.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was in 4th, one second off Hamilton and then came the second Williams of Felipe Massa in 5th, Daniil Kvyat in an impressive 6th at his home race, the Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen in 7th and Fernando Alonso in 8th and Jean-Eric Vergne heading Sebastian Vettel to round out the top ten.
Early on in the session, there were problems once again down at the Lotus team. Pastor Maldonado suffered an apparent ERS issue in the pit-lane and was told to get out of his car immediately. The problem sidelined the Venezuelan for the entire session, after only completing two laps.
It wasn’t just Maldonado suffering issues; McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen stopped out on track after a possible suspension failure in the middle of the high-speed turn three. The Dane held his car from hitting the wall before stopping on the circuit which brought out the sessions only red flag. McLaren were unable to tell what the problem was from their telemetry, however suspension failure is the main problem the team are looking at.
At the front of the field, Mercedes continued their usual strong pace. Their main contenders on Saturday morning were Williams, after spending most of Friday fending off McLaren. Williams showed strong pace, improving incredibly overnight with Bottas leading part of final practice.
It was not plain sailing for Mercedes however, after Lewis Hamilton suffered a big spin at the penultimate corner. The spin resembled that of one earlier in the season, at Austria during qualifying. The adventure left Hamilton with massive flatspots on all four tires, leading to him cutting across the track and into the pit-lane. It is unclear whether the stewards will look into how Hamilton entered the pits.
For homeboy, Daniil Kvyat, he once again showed that he has strong pace in front of his home crowd. The Toro Rosso driver impressed massively on Friday with strong runs, and continued this into Saturday, finishing the session in sixth place. Team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne completed a strong morning for Toro Rosso, in nineth position respectively.
Red Bull once again struggled on overall pace, especially in the hands of Sebastian Vettel. The German struggled incredibly with overall downforce. Onboard shots often showed Vettel either locking up, or fighting with the rear of his car. Whilst his team-mate had a strong session in fourth, Vettel will be looking to find a big change in his car before the crucial qualifying hour begins.
Another team seemingly struggling for pace, was Ferrari. The Italian giants were strong on Friday once again, although this is typical of Ferrari – running lower fuel on Friday, and their pace is not always as good as it seems.
However, it was normality resumed at the front of the field with Mercedes heading a 1-2, but Williams are a strong contender for taking the fight to them for pole position. It worked in Austria and it may well work again in Russia.
