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F1 Russian GP Live Updates - final practice and qualifying
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Magnussen was P16 ahead of fellow Q1 battlers Giovinazzi, Raikkonen, while Albon was rooted to P19 after his best lap was deleted for a moment at Turn 2. Norris brings up the rear of the field, but surely will expect to be a bit higher up the grid come qualifying later on.
Gasly after a spin is P11 ahead of Leclerc and Russell - who will again hope to escape Q1 for Williams - then Grosjean and Latifi.
Still, one wonders what Verstappen might have been able to do had he not been forced to abort his final lap after a purple sector one. He's sixth ahead of Vettel, Stroll, Kvyat and Ricciardo - who lost time on his final lap fiddling with his wing mirror.
So after both Mercedes drivers made errors on their first FP3 runs, it's Hamilton who tops the session by - if you're Bottas - an alarming margin of seven tenths from his team-mate. Sainz impresses in third, with Ocon and Perez right behind him suggesting the battle behind the Black Arrows will be as close as ever.
Checkered flag
Looks like Bottas ran out of time to set another time as the session has now come to an end.
Grosjean's eventful session continues as he joins the list of drivers to spin at Turn 15 - perhaps his entry a little compromised by passing one of the Alfas around the outside.
Bottas is going for one more effort right at the end of the session to reduce his deficit to Hamilton.
Ricciardo now moves up to P10, even with the distraction of fiddling with his right-hand wing mirror.
Albon had a big moment at Turn 2 and looked like he short-cutted the left-hander as he bounced over the exit kerb of the right. Sure enough, his lap is deleted for track limits.
Ricciardo has had a quiet session so far and is down in P17, but is on course to improve on soft tyres.
Improvements continue in the final five minutes as Ocon moves up to fourth for Renault.
Albon moves up from P19 to P7, as Verstappen aborts his lap and pits.
Indeed, Verstappen goes purple in sector one.
Perez now moves up to fourth place, but Verstappen is on a flier behind him.
Radio Comms
Vettel meanwhile has a big moment over the grass and the kerb exiting the final corner. "Check the tea tray", he tells his engineer.
Radio Comms
"Brilliant lap, great improvement. And that was without the tow," Grosjean's engineer says as his charge vaults up to 13th.
Stroll is back out meanwhile and also goes ahead of Leclerc, also pipping Kvyat to now slot into P6. Bottas meanwhile has another pop at Hamilton, but is one tenth slower than his own previous best and doesn't improve.
Sainz now moves up to third for McLaren. 0.8s behind Hamilton, while Kvyat splits the Ferraris in P6.
Radio Comms
"No more strat 3 in this run?" asks Bottas, perhaps a bit unsettled by that Hamilton time. "Negative, no more strat 3" is the response from his engineer.
Russell meanwhile goes seventh, a good effort there from the Williams driver on a 1m34.979s.
Verstappen, the best of the rest, is now over one second adrift in third, as Vettel moves up to fourth in the Ferrari, Leclerc up to fifth.
Stopwatch
Massive improvement found there by Hamilton, who becomes the first man so far today to break into the 1m33s barrier with a 1m33.279s, some 0.7s quicker than Bottas.
Russell has had a moment at Turn 2, resulting in his lap being deleted for abusing track limits.
Radio Comms
Hamilton told over the radio that Turn 8 and Turn 18 were the main areas Bottas found time on his last lap. Bottas now pits as his team-mate goes out on another set of softs.
Lots of work being done to the floor of Stroll's Racing Point as the world feed footage shows Albon having a big moment at Turn 15 - the big bump there catching a few drivers out this weekend.
Stopwatch
Yes indeed he can. Bottas goes two tenths quicker than his best with a 1m34.055s.
Bottas goes fractionally under his best in the first sector. Will he improve again?
Bottas has come out again for another crack at a flyer on the red-walled soft tyres.
Sainz and Ricciardo have both improved on their medium tyres, but moving up to seventh and tenth respectively.
He'll be hugely encouraged though by how close the Honda-powered Red Bull is to Mercedes, having feared that he'd struggle to beat Renault to third. But how much time has everybody else got stowed away in their pocket?
Verstappen goes for another flying lap, and is one tenth behind his best on the first go.
Norris meanwhile is still going on his mediums and is down in P18, having clocked up the most laps in the session so far.
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Ocon meanwhile has a big moment of snap oversteer at the penultimate corner but manages to avoid looping it by going into the run-off.
Stopwatch
Stonking effort from Verstappen, who comes within 0.017s of Bottas at the top of the charts, bumping Hamilton back to third.
Going back to Grosjean, he's a second behind team-mate Magnussen and complaining that there is no balance in the car, which is causing him to "almost crash at every corner". Not a happy chappie fighting for his F1 future in a car that isn't much fun to drive.
Gasly just lost it over the bump at the apex - comes very close to knocking the rear-wing off, but just brings it to a stop before going rearwards into the barriers.
Yellow flag
Meanwhile, Gasly has had a spin at the off-camber Turn 15. No damage to the AlphaTauri though, and he brings it back to the pits.
By: Jake Boxall-Legge
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