Russian GP: Hamilton leads Rosberg in final practice

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.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
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