Russian GP final practice and qualifying
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Hamilton is told "Turn 5 is biggest area for improvement," and he responds "Exit, right?" He's correct.
Leclerc goes fifth, Magnussen sixth.
Raikkonen goes third, 0.008s quicker than Vettel.
Edd Straw
Interesting contrasting Bottas v Raikkonen at Turn 5 - the Mercedes had a big response to the bump on entry whereas Raikkonen's car barely seemed to feel it.
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Vettel... doesn't improve. He's three tenths down on his own best, which is eight tenths down on Hamilton's new benchmark.
Stopwatch
Hamilton goes fastest with a 1m33.067s, 0.25s quicker than Bottas.
Hamilton is on a quick one, and Vettel has turned things up again now too. Let's see how they compare.
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There was a bit of discussion on the radio between Vettel and Ferrari about whether to do another slow lap or not. He was undecided, but based on his sector times he has taken it easy again. The track isn't too busy yet, but he's running out of time to get this lap in before the rest of the field streams out of the pits.
Stopwatch
Bottas puts in a cleaner lap than Vettel, and he goes fastest with a 1m33.321s.
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Vettel runs wide at Turns 4 and 8, so his first attempt on these hypersofts is blown.
A TV graphic tells us Vettel was 1.6km/h slower than Hamilton through the long, sweeping Turn 3.
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Vettel is the first of the big hitters to go out. Does this mean that by the time he starts his flying lap he'll encounter a bunch of cars on their out-laps?
Let's have a scenic shot while we wait for the quali sims.
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Renault says Sainz's final sector on his last lap was good, and he says it's "surprisingly good" given the state of his tyres - 8-lap-old hypersofts.
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Verstappen comes in, declaring it "useless" to stay out.
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Hulkenberg moves ahead of Sainz in the Renault battle, taking 10th place.
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Edd Straw
Perez in the Force India is probably the strongest midfield combination here - he's able to attack Turn 5 while keeping the car pretty well planted. And by the end of the lap, he goes fifth, so it's obviously looking good around the rest of the track as well.
Edd Straw
The Renaults seem to be struggling with rear end instability at turn in to T5. They can't commit to the right hander as aggressively as they would like to.
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1 Hamilton, 2 Bottas, 3 Vettel, 4 Raikkonen, 5 Ricciardo, 6 Ocon, 7 Leclerc, 8 Verstappen, 9 Perez, 10 Sainz.
Ocon moves up to sixth, Verstappen goes eighth, Perez has improved but is now ninth, while Sainz and Hulkenberg have improved and sit 10th and 11th. Busy few moments there!
Stopwatch
Hamilton goes faster with a 1m33.496s.
Radio Comms
Hamilton is told that his line for Turn 7 is good, and "Turn 8 is probably the area for biggest improvement, but not much".
As we say that, Sainz sneaks into the top 10 in the Renault.
Not much green (for improvements) on the timing screen at the moment. Everyone is continuing a run on the tyres they set their first times on in the session, before switching to new sets for the qualifying runs later on.
Edd Straw
I'm at the demanding braking zone of Turn 5. It’s interesting to compare the two Ferraris as Vettel gets onto the brakes more aggressively - you can really see the car dive. Raikkonen seems to be slightly more progressive and trying to keep the car a little less dramatically on the nose for turn on.
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"I don't know which McLaren it was, but it just didn't move out of the way," moans Grosjean. It was Vandoorne.
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1 Hamilton, 2 Bottas, 3 Vettel, 4 Raikkonen, 5 Ricciardo, 6 Leclerc, 7 Ocon, 8 Gasly, 9 Ericsson, 10 Perez.
Stopwatch
Hamilton makes it a Mercedes 1-2 with a 1m33.6s.
Ricciardo's lap puts him fifth, ahead of the Class B runners.
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We're yet to see the Red Bulls post a time, but we have Ricciardo on track now so he'll give us a first indication. Don't expect much qualifying simulation work from the team, because they have engine penalties and will be starting at the back.
Ocon slots into sixth, just behind Leclerc's Sauber.
By: Geoff Creighton
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