Ferrari and Vettel on the moon to dethrone Mercedes in qualifying

The race was set in motion from the start of Friday’s practice sessions where the Ferrari drivers took the top of the time sheets, benefiting from a good pace on long runs. As Saturday approached, the question was whether the Italian cars could finally dethrone the Mercedes in their favorite exercise. And the answer was positive with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen in first and second positions. The gap with the leading Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas remains minimal. The top three are separated by less than a tenth.

Lewis Hamilton, 4th, finishes more than 0.5 seconds off pole position;

Embodied with balance problems in the last sector.

The Maranello team had not secured the front row in qualifying since the Magny-Cours Grand Prix in 2008 with – back then – Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa. Needless to say, we can understand the joy and relief of Scuderia Ferrari, even though everything remains to be done tomorrow at the start of the race.

Sebastian Vettel Q3: 1st (1:33.194)

The four-time World Champion adds a 47th pole position to his tally. He hadn’t experienced the joy of being first on the grid since the Singapore Grand Prix in 2015. A delighted Sebastian Vettel recounted the course of his session: « I started the qualifying session well and felt reasonably comfortable. Then, I think in Q2, I lost a bit of rhythm during my last timed attempt, which I thought would give me an idea for Q3. It didn’t go well, and I locked the wheels and lost rhythm. »

The German continues on his third part of the qualifications: « In Q3 (the first lap) was not clean, so I went back out and had a good lap by improving in the last sector. »

The current leader of the Championship knew that by starting among the first in his second timed lap, he would have to wait to know his rivals’ times.

I knew it would be close and I knew I would be the first to cross the line. By going faster than what I saw on the screen before, with Kimi, I knew at that moment that I was ahead. (…) Then, the first one I saw was Valtteri (Bottas) who hadn’t managed to improve. Then when I got the message that we had it (the pole position) I was over the moon.

Sebastian Vettel savors the moment for himself and his team but remains focused on tomorrow’s race.

The car was phenomenal this afternoon. It was really a pleasure to get in and go for a spin with little fuel and just push it to the limit. If you have the pace here, it’s fantastic. He concludes: It’s a great team result to have both cars on the front row, but it’s only the first part of the job, the main thing is tomorrow. For now, it’s an important step, we managed to improve a bit. Maybe the track was also in our favor. But it’s a very good result. I’m sure everyone is happy and very proud.

POLE POSITION For #Seb5, first row completed by #Kimi7 P2! 👊🏼👊🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼#RussianGP #Quali #ForzaFerrari pic.twitter.com/HB0VfALKhK

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) 29 avril 2017

Kimi Räikkönen Q3: 2nd (1:33.253)

The 2007 World Champion, somewhat struggling in races compared to his teammate since the beginning of the season, was on the verge of securing his first pole position since 9 years ago at the 2008 French Grand Prix.

Rather comfortable and satisfied with the behavior of his car since the start of the weekend on the Sochi track – having set the fastest time during FP1 – he falls short by 59 thousandths of a second behind his teammate. The Finn could have claimed pole position during his last flying lap, but a mistake going wide in the final corner likely cost him the top spot.

He reports: « Obviously, the goal was to be in front. The feeling is much better this weekend. We had traffic during our out lap at the end of the final session (Q3) and we couldn’t quite get the tires to work as well as in the first session. It was a bit trickier. I was more or less on time (for pole position). I tried to make up time in the last corner, but it didn’t work out. »

Despite the disappointment of missing out on that pole position, Iceman is satisfied with being more successful in these qualifications.

« I am happier than during the previous qualifying sessions, but I think we had all the tools to be at the front today. A front row for the team is not bad. »

Valtteri Bottas Q3: 3rd (1:33.289)

The Finn, who secured his first pole position 15 days ago in Bahrain, recorded the third fastest time of the day, just 95 thousandths behind Sebastian Vettel. Most notably, he had set the fastest time at the end of Q2 with a 1:33.264 (faster than his lap in Q3), which seemed promising for being at the front. He once again outperformed his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, in the flying lap exercise.

« We can clearly see from the result that Ferrari was faster today. We were close at the end but not enough. To be honest, throughout the weekend they had the upper hand. They were able to extract much more (performance), especially with the ultra-softs. We were struggling with those tires yesterday and we managed to improve, but it wasn’t enough. »

Valtteri Bottas praises his team’s work and looks forward to the race: « Once again, it’s a good effort from the team to be so close. We are on the second row, and as always, tomorrow is the day that counts. Starting on the second row here is not a bad thing. It’s relatively long before getting to the second corner. »

Lewis Hamilton Q3: 4th (1:33.767)

The triple World Champion was outpaced by his teammate at the last Grand Prix in Sakhir. This time, he hasn’t been successful since the start of the weekend, not being at his best in long-run simulations. On this Saturday, the Briton finds himself in 4th position, more than five-tenths off pole position and over four-tenths behind Valtteri Bottas. Seemingly struggling, especially in the last sector, he had no explanations for this at the end of the session.

« I wasn’t fast enough today. I will have to go back into the data to try to understand why. But tomorrow everything is still up for grabs and at least I’m still here not far back. It was in the last sector that I lost half a second. So there is work to be done. »

Lewis Hamilton continues on the chances of making progress in the race: « The Ferraris are faster, obviously today in qualifying and generally in the race. So it will be interesting to see where we are. My goal is to try to gain positions, but my long runs were poor (during practice). So I hope it will be better tomorrow. »