Russian GP: Lewis Hamilton still in control in final practice

Lewis Hamilton marked himself as favourite for pole position as he set the pace in the final practice session for this weekend's Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes duo were once again the pace setters throughout most of the hour-long session, with Hamilton heading his team-mate Nico Rosberg by 0.290 seconds.
Hamilton ended the practice period in the pits after he spun at the penultimate corner on the lap, seven minutes from the chequered flag. After the spin Hamilton was able to nurse his car across the circuit and into the pitlane.
The main interloper at the top of the timesheets was Valtteri Bottas in his Williams. At one stage he was the quickest runner in the field and ended up splitting the Mercedes drivers. He ultimately finished third overall.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was next up ahead of the second Williams of Felipe Massa.
The partisan crowd would have been delighted with the performance of Russian Daniil Kvyat. He was third behind the Mercedes mid-way through the session and finished the hour-long period with the sixth fastest time.
Drivers continued to struggle on the new low-grip surface at the new Sochi Autodrom and in particular a few racers ran wide at the tricky right-handed Turn 4.
Sebastian Vettel set the tenth quickest time, but he appeared to struggle with the grip levels, running wide at number of times throughout the session.
Kimi Raikkonen was seventh, one place ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso.
The session was red-flagged on the 18 minute mark after Kevin Magnussen brought his McLaren to a stop heading into Turn 4.
On the radio he complained of either a puncture or suspension failure and replays showed how he skilfully managed to keep his car off the wall around Turn 3.
Pastor Maldonado could only manage an installation lap after a problem with the energy recovery system on his car.
To compound his misery, the Lotus driver goes into qualifying with a five-place grid penalty for an engine change that has been carried over from Suzuka.
Nico Hulkenberg also goes into qualifying with a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.
The Sochi circuit was bathed in warm sunshine for the lunchtime session and the good weather is set to continue for the rest of the weekend.

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m38.726s	-	15
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1m39.016s	0.290s	25
3	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1m39.097s	0.371s	20
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m39.755s	1.029s	16
5	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m39.954s	1.228s	22
6	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m40.009s	1.283s	27
7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m40.011s	1.285s	20
8	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1m40.151s	1.425s	15
9	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m40.205s	1.479s	26
10	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull/Renault	1m40.338s	1.612s	21
11	Jenson Button	McLaren/Mercedes	1m40.355s	1.629s	19
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1m40.669s	1.943s	23
13	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m40.699s	1.973s	26
14	Adrian Sutil	Sauber/Ferrari	1m41.146s	2.420s	21
15	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber/Ferrari	1m41.520s	2.794s	20
16	Romain Grosjean	Lotus/Renault	1m41.915s	3.189s	22
17	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren/Mercedes	1m42.436s	3.710s	4
18	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham/Renault	1m43.109s	4.383s	11
19	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham/Renault	1m43.975s	5.249s	12
20	Max Chilton	Marussia/Ferrari	1m44.737s	6.011s	9
-	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus/Renault	-	-	2