Russia – Free Practice 3: Hamilton in Olympic Form in Sochi

The sun is shining, and the sky is blue in Sochi for the final free practice session!

The session is underway! The drivers start the session on medium tires, with performances gradually improving before Kevin Magnussen suffers a failure in the massive curve surrounding the Olympic flame plaza. After skillfully controlling his car, he stops on track. The yellow flag and then the red flag are waved. The session is interrupted for five minutes and then resumes once the McLaren is cleared behind the barriers.

After half an hour, Bottas leads Hamilton, Rosberg, Kvyat, and Alonso. Moments later, Rosberg takes the lead with 1:40.178. In the Lotus garage, mechanics intervene to remove Pastor Maldonado’s battery, which could face another penalty. Meanwhile, the times are dropping: Lewis Hamilton clocks 1:38.726 on soft tires. The Briton seems more comfortable than his teammate, although, with 6 minutes remaining in the session, he makes a mistake in the final sequence and goes off track, but without any damage. He can return directly to the pits.

At the very end of the session, Rosberg manages to close in, but he remains three-tenths of a second behind his teammate. Valtteri Bottas is the third man in this session.