Ferrari Ramps Up the Pressure as Hamilton Struggles
World Championship leader and Ferrari number one Sebastian Vettel romps to Pole Position in Russia this afternoon as he and teammate Kimi Räikkönen lock out the front row of the grid for the first time since the 2008 French Grand Prix at Magny Cours. Understandably delighted to secure a prime starting position for the Grand Prix tomorrow, Vettel was pleased to have ended his own pole drought in the #5 Scuderia Ferrari entry:
"Yeah it felt like ages, not a little while!" Vettel said. "Obviously it was a while ago. I think it's great. We've had a very good run also yesterday, this morning, and the car feels great. There's no real secret. It's just a fact that if you get along with the car here, you find the rhythm, you know what to expect. It's a track where you can make a big difference.
"We knew it would be tight because Mercedes ramps it up in qualy. Valtteri was very close so it could have been the other way, but for sure it's a great achievement and I'm very happy to lock out the front row for the team."
With Ferrari having played all their cards right at Sochi this afternoon, it was left to a surprisingly underwhelming Mercedes team to take up the challenge on row two, with new Silver Arrows recruit Valtteri Bottas once again outperforming championship favourite Lewis Hamilton to wrap up third place on the grid, one spot and less than one tenth of a second in front of his illustrious team mate.
“I just wasn’t quick enough today, so I have to go back to the drawing board and try to figure out why" Said Hamilton.
“It was all in the last sector, I was losing half a second there. I've been struggling there all weekend with the balance and it's been tough to utilise the tyres.”
Other notable performances from todays session include a stand out lap from Felipe Massa in the Williams Mercedes, who used all the performance available from the car and engine combination to secure sixth position in the final times and Force India drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon who once again over performed in a car less than ideally suited to this track to round out the Q3 times in ninth and tenth places.
Full provisional qualification results for Sunday's Russian Grand Prix:
- Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari - Ferrari 1m 33.194s
- Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari - Ferrari 1m 33.253s
- Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes - Mercedes 1m 33.289s
- Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes - Mercedes 1m 33.767s
- Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull - TAG 1m 34.905s
- Felipe Massa BRA Williams - Mercedes 1m 35.110s
- Max Verstappen NED Red Bull - TAG 1m 35.161s
- Nico Hulkenberg GER Renault - Renault 1m 35.285s
- Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes 1m 35.337s
- Esteban Ocon FRA Force India-Mercedes 1m 35.430s
- Carlos Sainz ESP Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 35.948s *
- Lance Stroll CAN Williams - Mercedes 1m 35.964s
- Daniil Kvyat RUS Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 35.968s
- Kevin Magnussen DEN Haas-Ferrari 1m 36.017s
- Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 36.660s
- Jolyon Palmer GBR Renault - Renault 1m 36.462s
- Stoffel Vandoorne BEL McLaren-Honda 1m 37.070s **
- Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber - Ferrari 1m 37.332s
- Pascal Wehrlein GER Sauber - Ferrari 1m 37.507s
- Romain Grosjean FRA Haas-Ferrari 1m 37.620s
* 3 place grid penalty
** 15 place grid penalty
