Russian Grand Prix: Hamilton leads Mercedes one-two in practice

Their quickest laps, set on the hypersoft tyres, both came half an hour into the session during the team's qualifying simulation runs.

Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were next up on the Sochi timesheets, with the pair both 0.4s off the best time of Hamilton's and separated by just 0.017s.

Both Red Bull drivers will face grid penalties for engine changes this weekend.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel recorded the fifth fastest time, half a second up on his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who was sixth.

With 20 minutes of the session remaining, Vettel had a small spin under braking for the tight Turn 13 right-hander, which was one of the few incidents in a largely uneventful session.

The Force Indias were seventh and ninth - Sergio Perez ahead of Esteban Ocon - while Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso) and Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) rounded out the top 10.

Conditions on the Black Sea coastline were mild, but cloudier than this morning and despite Raikkonen reporting spots of rain early on it stayed dry throughout.

Kevin Magnussen set the 11th fastest time ahead of his Haas team-mate Romain Grosjean who was 15th on the day that both drivers were confirmed at the team for 2019.

Sauber's Charles Leclerc finished the session in 13th, splitting the two Renaults.

Slowest of the runners were the two McLarens, Fernando Alonso ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne and finally the two Williams, with Russia's Sergey Sirotkin, racing at his home circuit for the first time in F1, ahead of Lance Stroll.

FP2 times