Sebastian Vettel “surprised” by the gap with Mercedes: reactions from the top 3
It's a real lesson that Ferrari received in the Sochi Olympic Park. Sebastian Vettel found himself relegated to more than half a second. Another surprise was Valtteri Bottas achieving the best time among the two Silver Arrows.
In Singapore, everyone expected Ferrari to dominate the qualifiers. But Lewis Hamilton was able to pull off a lap from another world to deny the Reds a new pole. 15 days later, in Sochi, it was an undisputed domination by Mercedes that observers were expecting. And it must be admitted that Mercedes did not disappoint.
Thus, the gap between Mercedes and Ferrari was simply abyssal, with the Scuderia more than half a second behind the absolute reference. Sebastian Vettel, who ended up third, was the first to acknowledge that he hadn’t expected to be dominated in such a manner: “It was complicated for us. We didn’t have the pace, by a large margin, which is a surprise. We will fight as much as possible tomorrow.”
However, the configuration of the Russian circuit may give him hope. He is the first to recall that the long distance separating the starting line from the first turn can provide overtaking opportunities: “You never know what is going to happen. I was joking with Valtteri earlier that he should remember what happened last year when he was third and I was on pole. You never know. Everything will depend on the start.”
At the time, Valtteri Bottas was able to sign his first F1 victory while the front row was 100% red. This year, that front row has turned gray, but Valtteri Bottas is still the best representative of the star’s company. Yet, the one who was called “the perfect teammate” by his own director and “butler” by the director of his main rival knows he is still far from winning the race: « My approach for tomorrow’s race is clearly to win. You can’t have any other objectives when starting from pole. So that’s obviously the goal, but we are also a team, fighting for both championships. Obviously, Lewis is ahead with a little lead over Sebastian and a big gap over me. We need to keep that in mind, but my approach at the start is to win the race. We will see what happens. »
After his superb performance in the same exercise two weeks ago, Lewis Hamilton was unable to replicate such a lap, making a mistake on his last attempt: During my first lap in Q3, I was three-tenths down in the middle sector but faster in the first and last. So I knew I had to push because I knew he would gain time as well. So I didn’t just have to find three-tenths but half a second. So maybe I pushed a little too hard.
But the Briton knows that he is in a very good position to further increase his lead in the championship and get even closer to his fifth title.
