Mercedes on top while McLaren still on hunt

Mercedes continued to lead the way around Sochi Autodrom this afternoon, but this time it was Lewis Hamilton who pulped the opposition. The Briton was the only man to break into the 1m 39s, and duly ended the session more than eight tenths clear of the chasing pack.

Hamilton’s surge came as the field switched onto the yellow-marked soft tyre: first he did 1m 39.817s, then cut that to 1m 39.630s. Team mate Nico Rosberg, who had earlier been fastest on the hard tyre with 1m 41.508s to Hamilton’s 1m 41.750s, made a mistake and ran wide on the best of his own flying laps and was left in fourth place with 1m 40.542s after his soft-tyre runs.

Between them, McLaren continued their strong start in Russia as Kevin Magnussen jumped to second on 1m 40.494s, albeit 0.864s down on Hamilton. And Fernando Alonso made a big improvement in the final half hour to go third for Ferrari after several laps on the soft tyre, with 1m 40.504s.

In general the times have been very tight thus far, Hamilton excepted. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas recovered from a tyre blanket malfunction this morning to slot into fifth on 1m 40.573s – three hundredths of a second down on Rosberg, and fractions ahead of Jenson Button, who set 1m 40.718s in the second McLaren, and Felipe Massa on 1m 40.731s in the other FW36.

Daniil Kvyat described his Toro Rosso as “lazy” but remained the fastest Renault-engined runner in eighth, on 1m 41.108s.

Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:39.630 27
2 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1:40.494 0.864 32
3 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:40.504 0.874 32
4 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:40.542 0.912 30
5 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1:40.573 0.943 33
6 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:40.718 1.088 32
7 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:40.731 1.101 30
8 26 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 1:41.108 1.478 32
9 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:41.396 1.766 30
10 25 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 1:41.531 1.901 33
11 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:41.630 2.000 24
12 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:41.677 2.047 27
13 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:42.061 2.431 25
14 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1:42.090 2.460 29
15 99 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:42.233 2.603 31
16 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:42.892 3.262 30
17 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1:42.905 3.275 33
18 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1:43.055 3.425 33
19 9 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1:44.135 4.505 22
20 4 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1:44.530 4.900 29
21 10 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1:44.952 5.322 27