Nico Rosberg tops the timesheets as Sainz Jr suffers a massive accident in FP3 at Sochi

In the final practice session in Russia, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in a very busy session at the Sochi circuit due to the rain hitting the track yesterday and also a diesel spillage that affected the drivers getting on the pace in the first two practice sessions yesterday.

However, everyone's thoughts are with Carlos Sainz Jr as he suffered a heavy accident at Turn 13 in the final part of the session which stopped the session as a result; due to getting him out of the car, clearing the debris and also fixing the barriers.

In the first twenty minutes of the session at the final corner, Max Verstappen lost the car at the apex and spun his Toro Rosso around. Luckily, Verstappen did not hit Sebastian Vettel who was also going through the corner and was able to continue running in the session.

In the last twenty five minutes of the session, Carlos Sainz Jr at Turn 13 has had a big accident and hit the Armco barrier at considerable force; leaving a lot of debris on the track. As a result of this, the session was red flagged until they manage to get Sainz Jr out of the car and able to get the car recovered and the barriers fixed.

The Toro Rosso team tried to communicate with Sainz Jr on the team radio but the team have lost all communication with him as a result of the incident. The session would then not be restarted as a result of what has happened to Sainz Jr and my thoughts are with Carlos and we at Driving for Pleasure hope that he is seriously okay and not seriously hurt as a result of his accident.

As Sainz Jr is taken to the medical centre, we saw him putting a thumbs up to the TV cameras and that he is conscious. This is great news and let's hope that he hasn't sustained any injuries as a result of this massive accident.

But it was Nico Rosberg who topped the timesheets with a lap time of 1.38.561 ahead of Valtteri Bottas in second place who was 0.726 seconds behind him but was ahead of Lewis Hamilton who finished in third place who was 0.802 seconds behind the Mercedes of Rosberg

Sergio Perez finished the session in fourth place ahead of Felipe Massa in fifth place, Nico Hulkenberg in sixth place, Jenson Button in seventh place, Pastor Maldonado in eighth place, Fernando Alonso in ninth place and Felipe Nasr who rounded off the top ten finishers of the session.

Daniil Kvyat finished the session in eleventh place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in twelfth place, Romain Grosjean in thirteenth place, Marcus Ericsson in fourteenth place and Carlos Sainz Jr in fifteenth place despite his accident in the latter part of the session.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Sebastian Vettel finished the session in sixteenth place ahead of Max Verstappen in seventeenth place, Daniel Ricciardo in eighteenth place and the two Manor drivers of Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens rounding up the grid.

The classification of FP3 for the Russian GP is as follows:-

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.38.561
2. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 0.726s
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 0.802s
4. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.055s
5. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.314s
6. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes 1.356s
7. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 2.020s
8. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 2.206s
9. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 2.639s
10. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.668s
11. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 2.797s
12. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 3.736s
13. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 3.810s
14. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 3.889s
15. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 4.122s
16. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 4.125s
17. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 4.528s
18. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 4.786s
19. Roberto Merhi, Manor, 8.206s
20. Will Stevens, Manor, 8.688s

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa