After taking over from Nico Rosberg at the top of the Russian Grand Prix timesheets on Friday afternoon, F1 drivers’ championship leader Lewis Hamilton continued to set the pace with the fastest time of the final practice session at the Sochi Autodrom.

With 10 minutes left in the hour-long session, Hamilton, using the quicker soft tyre, set a lap of 1:38.726 that proved unassailable. Rosberg’s first outing on the same tyre left him a second off Hamilton’s pace. The German’s final quick lap took him to P2 on the timesheet but significantly he ended the session almost three tenths of a second down on the Briton, a large margin.

Until Rosberg’s final lap, Williams’ Valtteri Bottas had held second position but the Mercedes man’s quickest time demoted the Finn to third spot, with his best time of 1:39.097 leaving him eight hundredths of a second adrift of Rosberg and just under four tenths down on Hamilton.

After a difficult day yesterday Red Bull Racing returned to the upper reaches of the order in FP3. On Friday afternoon, Daniel Ricciardo finished in 13^th place after being forced to stop his car on circuit with a power unit issue. He bounced back this morning to fourth place with a time just over a second down on Hamilton’s. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, finished the final practice session in 10^th place.

Fifth place in FP3 went to the second Williams of Felipe Massa.

On Friday, Toro Rosso looked to have made a step forward as Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric finished eighth and tenth respectively and local hero Kvyat continued the good form this morning with the Russian finishing in sixth place. Vergne was ninth, two tenths of a second behind his team-mate.

Kimi Raikkonen was seventh quickest for Ferrari, the Finn finishing just under 1500ths of a second ahead of team-mate Fernando Alonso, who seemed to be struggling slightly at the new track.

Earlier, the session was red-flagged as it approached the 20-minute mark when Kevin Magnussen lost control of his McLaren. The Dane caught the car skillfully and managed to avoid a crash but after the car was returned to the garage a gearbox issue was diagnosed and he will take a five-place penalty after qualifying following a change.

2014 Russian Grand Prix – Free Practice 3 Times
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:38.726 15
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:39.016 0.290 25
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:39.097 0.371 20
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:39.755 1.029 16
5 Felipe Massa Williams 1:39.954 1.228 22
6 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:40.009 1.283 27
7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:40.011 1.285 20
8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:40.151 1.425 15
9 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:40.205 1.479 26
10 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:40.338 1.612 21
11 Jenson Button McLaren 1:40.355 1.629 19
12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:40.669 1.943 23
13 Sergio Perez Force India 1:40.699 1.973 26
14 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:41.146 2.420 21
15 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:41.520 2.794 20
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:41.915 3.189 22
17 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:42.436 3.710 4
18 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:43.109 4.383 11
19 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:43.975 5.249 12
20 Max Chilton Marussia 1:44.737 6.011 9
21 Pastor Maldonado Lotus No time 2