Sochi FP3: Who can catch Hamilton?

Hamilton's best time of 1:33.067 is faster than anyone has ever raced around the 5.848 km Olympic venue, it was also a quarter of a second up on his teammate Valtteri Bottas and six tenths up on Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, the pair ending the 60-minute session second and third respectively.

A further three tenths down, in fourth, was Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari followed by the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen in fifth and Daniel Ricciardo sixth. The Dutchman almost a second shy of the top time.

Charles Leclerc was Best of the Rest in the Sauber, the Ferarri bound youngster 1.6 seconds off the benchmark time, an alarming gap between the pacesetters and the midfield.

Force India continued to show good form with Esteban Ocon eighth fastest and Sergio Perez tenth, the Pinks split on the timesheet by the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.

The misery continued for Williams and McLaren, with Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll in 17th and 18th respectively, while Stoffel Vandoorne was second last and Fernando Alonso slowest of all, the Spaniard facing penalties focusing on race pace.