Mercedes Nico Rosberg has carried on his domination of the 2016 season with another pole position as his team mate Lewis Hamilton struggled with reliability once again.
Hamilton was completing a second out lap in Q2, having successfully made it into the top ten shootout, when his engine suffered the same power failure it did in China last time out. The result is he will start 10th tomorrow baring any grid penalties while the team have a long night ahead of them changing his power Unit.
“I went out at the end of Q2 to get a feel and I lost the same power as I lost in China,” A rather downcast Hamilton told the media while Q3 was being run at the time.
The issues for Hamilton meant Rosberg was mostly unchallenged for pole position, as the two Mercedes were out in front of their nearest rivals.
“I was quite confident that the lap was good enough out there because in Q2 the Ferraris were quite far away and I knew Lewis wasn’t taking any further part in qualifying,” Rosberg told reporters.
Finishing best of the rest behind the Mercedes of Rosberg was the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, though he was over seven tenths off the pace of Rosberg. As well as this Vettel must also serve a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox. The Ferrari driver remained positive about starting seventh for tomorrows race though.
“The car feels good. We know on Saturday we are a little bit further back than we would hope, but I expect a strong race.”
His penalty promoted the Williams driver of Valtteri Bottas up to second, after he put in a stellar lap to split the two Ferraris. Kimi Raikkonen will now star third ahead of Felipe Massa, and Daniel Riccardo. While Sergio Perez, home grown hero Daniil Kvyat, and Max Verstappen round out the nine drivers who took part in Q3.
Meanwhile it was a day of mixed fortunes for McLaren. Both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso failed to make it further than Q2. But they can take away some satisfaction that Button, who will start tomorrows race 12th, was only a tenth of a second away from making the top ten shootout. He joined the Q2 dropouts of Carlos Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg, and the two Haas drivers of Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean.
It proved to be another troubling session for the Renault team, with both Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen failing to make it out of Q3, highlighting the trouble the team have had returning to the sport this season. Elsewhere it was a more positive session for the Sauber of Felipe Nasr. Nasr, with his new chassis, was finally able to out qualify his team mate Marcus Ericsson, who will start the race in last place tomorrow. With the Manor’s splitting him and his team mate.
Russian GP Qualifying
Q3
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:35.417
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:36.123 *Five-place grid penalty
3. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:36.536
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:36.663
5. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:37.016
6. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:37.125
7. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:37.212
8. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:37.459
9. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1:37.583
10. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, No time Set
Q2
11. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:37.652
12. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:37.701
13. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:37.771
14. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:37.807
15. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 1:38.005
16. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, 1:38.115
Q1
17. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1:38.914
18. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:39.009
19. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:39.018
20. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, 1:39.399
21. Rio Haryanto, Manor, 1:39.463
22. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:39.519
Feature Image Credit: Williams Martini Racing Press Release
