Practice report
Formula 1 Russian GP
Russian GP: Hamilton leads Rosberg in final practice
Lewis Hamilton beat teammate Nico Rosberg to the quickest time in final practice for the Russian Grand Prix.
Pablo Elizalde
Edited: Apr 30, 2016, 12:05 PM
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The British driver emerged on top after an intense exchange of fastest laps between the Mercedes duo, in the end finishing less than a tenth ahead of the German.
Hamilton went quickest right at the end of the session with a 1:36.403 lap that put him 0.068s ahead of Rosberg.
Sebastian Vettel finished a distant third in the quickest Ferrari, over sixth tenths off Hamilton's best. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen was seven tenths slower in fourth.
Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas continued to show Williams appears to be the third-fastest team this weekend, emerging in fifth and sixth.
Max Verstappen put the fastest Toro Rosso in seventh, ahead of the McLaren of Jenson Button and teammate Carlos Sainz.
Sergio Perez completed the top 10 as Red Bull duo Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat were down in 11th and 13th.
While several drivers focussed on trying the medium tyre compounds at the start of the session, the supersofts were also seen from the outset, with Ricciardo using them to go quickest, albeit with a lap still in the 1:40s.
Perez lowered the benchmark with a 1:39.151 as the front-runners took it easy at the start, before Ricciardo regained the top spot, dipping into the 1:38s on his fourth lap on supersofts.
Perez caused a virtual safety car deployment 15 minutes into the session after he stopped off the track after overshooting Turn 13.
The Force India driver, who looked set to go quickest before going off, needed assistance from the marshals as he ran out of room to turn his car around, but managed to continue once he was pushed.
Five minutes later, it was Rosberg who went off at the same corner, but the Mercedes driver managed to go in reverse and rejoin the action without assistance.
Hamilton jumped to first position with 25 minutes to go, the Briton lapping in 1:38.217, despite not setting the best time in Sector 3.
After recovering from his incident, Rosberg outpaced Hamilton moments later, the German the first driver to lap in the 1:37s, despite going off at the final corner.
That did not last long, however, as Hamilton went even quicker to beat his teammate's time by nearly four tenths of a second on his following lap.
But the battle between the Mercedes duo did not end there, and Rosberg fought back right away to go fastest by a tenth.
Hamilton set the best Sector 1 time on the following lap, but the Briton overshot Turn 13 and went off, flat-spotting his front left tyre in the process.
Rosberg went even quicker near the end of the session, the championship leader opening a gap of nearly half a second to his teammate, who responded just a couple of minutes later to retake first place.
PosDriverTeamTimeGapLaps 1 
Lewis Hamilton 
Mercedes 1:36.403 17 2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:36.471 +0.068 22 3 Sebastian Vettel 
Ferrari 1:37.007 +0.604 28 4 
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:37.727 +1.324 14 5 
Felipe Massa Williams 1:37.918 +1.515 16 6 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:37.985 +1.582 16 7 
Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:38.133 +1.730 22 8 Jenson Button McLaren 1:38.260 +1.857 14 9 
Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso 1:38.465 +2.062 25 10 
Sergio Perez 
Force India 1:38.542 +2.139 18 11 
Daniel Ricciardo 
Red Bull Racing 1:38.622 +2.219 23 12 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:38.633 +2.230 12 13 
Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing 1:39.047 +2.644 15 14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:39.162 +2.759 16 15 Esteban Gutierrez 
Haas F1 Team 1:39.230 +2.827 18 16 
Kevin Magnussen 
Renault F1 Team 1:39.238 +2.835 16 17 Romain Grosjean Haas F1 Team 1:39.239 +2.836 15 18 Jolyon Palmer Renault F1 Team 1:39.589 +3.186 19 19 
Rio Haryanto Manor Racing 1:39.599 +3.196 19 20 Pascal Wehrlein Manor Racing 1:39.663 +3.260 18 21 
Marcus Ericsson 
Sauber 1:39.740 +3.337 23 22 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:39.898 +3.495 19
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