[ad_1]
Bottas denied another practice hat-trick by the speedy Hamilton in final practice; Mixed field back with last Verstappen shuttlecock interrupted
By James Galloway
Last Updated: 09/26/20 11:16 am
Lewis Hamilton reached the top of the timesheets for the first time in a potentially historic weekend for the F1 world champion in final practice for the Russian Grand Prix.
Hamilton was comfortably faster than Valtteri Bottas, Friday’s pioneer, this time with a lap of 1: 33.279, which was eight tenths of a second faster than his Mercedes teammate.
But the battle between the pair is likely to be closer when pole position is at stake in qualifying starting at 1pm live on Sky Sports F1, while the fight for positions behind looks hugely competitive.
In P3, McLaren and Renault maintained their good form from opening day with Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon third and fourth for the two teams respectively.
With Sergio Perez very close to fifth for Racing Point, that meant Max Verstappen was only sixth fastest, but the Dutchman had shown a challenging pace from Mercedes earlier in the session on the soft tires.
However, Verstappen failed a final qualifying simulation and thus lost ground to the top two in the final stages.
Sebastian Vettel finished seventh for Ferrari amid a better performance from the four-time champion relative to Charles Leclerc so far this weekend.
More to follow …
[ad_2]
