Sebastian Vettel led the first all-Ferrari front row for eight years in qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix.
But it was a close call: the top three on the grid were covered by less than a tenth of a second.
Q1
The first phase of qualifying ended with simultaneous spins for two of the drivers who failed to make the cut for Q1.
Jolyon Palmer made it as far as the barrier when he lost his car at turn four, clouting the kerb hard. That means another repair job for his Renault mechanics, who have already replaced his chassis due to a technical problem and swapped his power unit this weekend.
Pascal Wehrlein spun his Sauber at turn 13, but at least had gone quick enough to stay off the back row of the grid. That was occupied by his team mate Marcus Ericsson and the Haas of Romain Grosjean, who remained mystified about the poor balance of his Haas.
For the fourth time in as many races Stoffel Vandoorne failed to make the cut for Q2. But Fernando Alonso managed to get a quicker lap time in before the yellow flags flew, meaning at least one McLaren made it out of Q1.
Drivers eliminated in Q1
| 16 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’36.462 |
| 17 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Honda | 1’37.070 |
| 18 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’37.332 |
| 19 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’37.507 |
| 20 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’37.620 |
Q2
If Mercedes had been troubled by Ferrari’s pace in practice, matters seemed to change when they unleashed their real pace in Q2. Bottas immediately took eight-tenths of a second off his best effort so far to head the times, Hamilton backing him up in second place.
On Sochi’s long straights a Mercedes power unit was the thing to have. Both Force Indias grabbed places in the final ten and fellow Mercedes customers Williams showed the pace to do the same as Felipe Massa secured his spot in Q3.
But Lance Stroll, who unusually elected not to do a qualifying simulation in Q2 yesterday, found himself up against it. Through the first two sectors on his final lap it seemed Williams were in with a shot of getting both cars in. But a poor final sector meant Stroll failed to make the cut.
He was joined by a frustrated Alonso, the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen and both Toro Rossos.
Drivers eliminated in Q2
| 11 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’35.948 |
| 12 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’35.964 |
| 13 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’35.968 |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’36.017 |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’36.660 |
Q3
Could Ferrari beat Mercedes’ searing pace from Q2? They could: but not by much. Fortunately even Bottas couldn’t replicate his best effort from earlier in the session.
Kimi Raikkonen grabbed provisional pole position with his first run. But when the top quartet took to the track for their final efforts any one of them could have taken the top spot.
Through the first sector it was Lewis Hamilton who led the way. But a scruffy end to the lap left him over half a second behind his rivals.
There was almost nothing to choose between the trio ahead of him. Bottas fell short of his Q2 time by a few hundreds of a second. Raikkonen, after a slightly slow first sector, recovered to edge Bottas back. But Vettel had fractionally more in hand, and took Ferrari’s first pole position for a year and a half.
Daniel Ricciardo took a distant fifth for Red Bull while Felipe Massa separated him from team mate Max Verstappen. Nico Hulkenberg beat the two Force Indias to eighth.
Top ten in Q3
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’33.194 |
| 2 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’33.253 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’33.289 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’33.767 |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’34.905 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’35.110 |
| 7 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’35.161 |
| 8 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’35.285 |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’35.337 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’35.430 |
2017 Russian Grand Prix
- Maiden victory earn Bottas first Driver of the Weekend win since 2014
- 2017 Russian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Thanks for nothing: Sochi rated among worst ten races of last ten years
- 2017 Russian Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- 2017 Russian Grand Prix Star Performers
OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
29th April 2017, 14:06
I’ll be shaking of so much expectation until tomorrow green lights!!
SaraJ (@sjzelli)
29th April 2017, 16:55
Indeed. Woo!
ColinChapman (@colinchapman)
29th April 2017, 14:07
Setting up to be a good race. Great job by the top three, all doing what they needed to.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
29th April 2017, 14:09
I was expecting Mercedes to pull clear 0.5 seconds in Q3 as usual but it just didn’t happen.
Hamilton had no answer to Bottas for the second time in a row.
Hulkenberg continues to impress in qualifying this year! 0.3 seconds behind the Red Bulls is telling how much Renault as a chassis has improved.
McLaren performance is appalling. Alonso was lucky to get into Q2 and ended up at about 3.5 seconds behind reference time.
Kudos to Ferrari who grabs the first line, quite a feat!
Evil Homer (@)
29th April 2017, 14:10
Very happy for Bottas to out qualify his team mate again, hope he has a stellar race!
Loup Garou (@loup-garou)
29th April 2017, 14:47
Same here. Hamilton will want him to move out of the way, of course.
MG421982 (@)
29th April 2017, 15:34
Hope won’t do it, but if VET wins tomorrow… I hardly believe Mercedes has big chances to fight Ferrari/VET until the last race for the WDC if they won’t back-up HAM completely starting right now.
Loup Garou (@loup-garou)
29th April 2017, 17:37
So, what’s your idea of the team “backing-up” Hamilton? Tell Bottas to make way even if he is performing better? Sabotage Bottas’ car a bit so that he cannot keep up? Team orders when a car is faster than the other is one thing but any sort of blatant unfairness will affect the Merc’s team’s credibility. I don’t think they’ll do that.
If Hamilton want’s the title he has to work for it – not expect a teammate’s charity.
MG421982 (@)
29th April 2017, 18:48
Yup, that was “my idea”. I hope they won’t do it… but just for your knowledge, last race Mercedes told BOT to let HAM past… 2 times! So, even they don’t have a written “1-2 contract”, they apply it successfully. RAI performances are “weak” enough not to make it ahead of VET when it matters (Quali and Race), so Ferrari doesn’t even need a 1-2 strategy. Their no.1 driver comes in front all the time anyway. Mercedes seems to need it… if they don’t want to let VET run away with the WDC. BOT seems less consistent, so of course the HAM should be no.1.
Robbie (@robbie)
29th April 2017, 21:19
Well ok but VB is being less consistent, less consistently, perhaps. After all, let’s give the guy a break. I think Merc themselves won’t know what to do until the race unfolds. It’ll be fascinating to see.
grumpy
30th April 2017, 11:24
If you read what was said correctly, Mercedes will ask the faster of their two drivers to move over for their team mate to challenge Seb .. IF and only IF the occasion arises, at no time have they said they will favour Hamilton over Bottas.
Joe (@)
29th April 2017, 14:11
that gap to RBR though…
darko
29th April 2017, 14:30
Definitely too big for them to even be in the conversation for the championship.
They can improve down the road, but not by 2 seconds( assuming the Ferrari and Mercedes will also improve by, let’s say 0.5 seconds)
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
29th April 2017, 14:12
Soo, Who is this #2 Mercedes driver? Two weekends in a row now Bottas in genuine contention.
Now even Kimi did a decent quali. He had pole in hand… But overdid final corner. Compared to Sebastian Loeb there, his car seemed always in control… Very impressive.
Evil Homer (@)
29th April 2017, 14:18
Bottas was always going to give Lewis a hard time, but impressed with one lap pace as well.
Mercedes always say the care about Constructors rather than drivers Championship so hope they just let them race all year.
BobW
29th April 2017, 14:12
Ferrari really got inside of Mercedes’s heads with going out in Q1 on the super-soft tire! It looked like both Bottas and Hamilton were over-driving the car. They both pushed a little too hard and it showed in lockups and sliding.
I would like to thank Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen for the awesome birthday present. A Ferrari front row is the best present ever! Forza Ferrari!
Joao (@johnmilk)
29th April 2017, 14:15
Nokia 3310
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
29th April 2017, 14:31
@johnmilk
In F1 anything can happen and it usually does !!! (Murray Walker all right reserved)
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
29th April 2017, 14:15
I know this has never been a particularly popular or good track, but surely tomorrow will give us something different? Four cars so close to each other, and arguably the slowest qualifier is the feistiest racer out of all of them? I quite like the Sochi track during quali in the 2017 cars, it looks ballsy, and I think you can probably overtake. Here’s hoping the race tomorrow makes for good viewing.
Maros
29th April 2017, 14:24
I think the track is spectacular with a stunning scenary around it. Let’s keep personal feelings about things to ourselves and avoid generalising much!
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
29th April 2017, 14:27
Sochi is not a popular track, nor have the races so far been particularly good. Nothing I’m saying is controversial, as this seems to be the consensus.
Ibrahim (@ibrahim)
29th April 2017, 15:01
Unless it’s a Muslim country and then everyone here cries about the place.
Markp
29th April 2017, 16:03
No champagn3 on the podium does ruin races.
Strontium (@strontium)
29th April 2017, 16:35
Maros, @hahostolze, I have always thought Sochi’s track got too much criticism. The races have been quite boring and the layout is average, and yes it is drawn around a car park (or some call it a museum of corruption) with 90° corners when they could’ve done anything, but it is in a stunning location with full grandstands, great scenery, a layout which is definitely not as bad as Abu Dhabi, and features close walls, even if the run-off areas reflect the car park around it. I think a lot of criticism stems (or is exaggerated) from it being located in such a controversial location.
I don’t think it is a great track by any means, but at least it’s got some personality. It would only take a few tweaks to make it exciting (it’s just a big shame they’re not changing it).
The races have been boring but I think the new regulation changes suit this track a lot
aalate
29th April 2017, 14:18
What was Kimis middle sector like? In first he was ~.050 behind Seb. Could he have gotten pole if he’d done let’s say the same last sector time as on the banker lap?
Hugh (@hugh11)
29th April 2017, 14:30
Not sure about compared to Seb, but in the first sector he was .038 up on his previous lap, and in the second he was up .050, so without the mistake on the final corner, there’s every chance he could’ve been on pole.
Strontium (@strontium)
29th April 2017, 16:44
@hugh11 what is interesting is that all four of them seem to have made mistakes, except perhaps Bottas who was just slower than in Q2. If their laps had all been perfect who knows who would’ve actually been the fastest.
Nevertheless, I am happy with the result and it should be a good race tomorrow. We can expect Ferrari’s race pace to be stronger
Mashiat (@mashiat)
29th April 2017, 19:53
@strontium Bottas made probably the 2nd biggest mistake of them all.
Strontium (@strontium)
29th April 2017, 21:20
@mashiat ah right, I didn’t see his lap particularly so I didn’t want to assume he had made a mistake, but that would make sense
elio (@elio)
29th April 2017, 14:21
“…And that was a Sebastian Vettel lap”.
darko
29th April 2017, 14:24
Alright I’m calling it, the Ferrari is now an overwhelming favorite for the season on my eyes.
Clearly the car is simply a better design than Mercedes, superior grip (not fully shown yet but the upcoming tracks with enough fast turns will show it) and matching it in power.
And Red Bull is not even a contender, their gap is just way too big.
MaddMe (@)
29th April 2017, 14:35
Don’t rule RBR out yet… They have a lot of new components coming for the next race and I believe PU upgrades too. Yes they are down in the mix at the moment but only just coming up to 20% of the season completed, so still plenty of time to catch up.
Loup Garou (@loup-garou)
29th April 2017, 17:41
And they have Adrian Newey. I expect RBR, particularly with Ricciardo, to be more competitive as the season goes on. They are likely to be prominent in races like Monaco, Hungary, Spa, Singapore and Malaysia.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
29th April 2017, 15:38
However, take a look at the article about changed PU components by team – even if Ferrari have the pace advantage, they are at a higher risk of taking engine penalties than Mercedes across the season.
Markp
29th April 2017, 16:05
They could do the whole season on 2 turbos, the 2 others can be re used for Fridays. No issue. The ICE is more critical.
Lolita
29th April 2017, 14:29
Ferrari gives Mercedes a free (?!…) «russian lesson»…
Olav (@okersen)
29th April 2017, 14:31
How come the best lap times improved from P3 to quali only ca 0,8 seconds? I expected a much bigger improvement.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
29th April 2017, 14:36
Temperature went down, quali was later in the day local time, probably that’s why.
Ben (@chookie6018)
29th April 2017, 15:53
Didn’t help me for my predictions, that being said I predicted Hamilton to get pole. So clearly not my day for predictions. However it was a great qualifying and I’m pumped for the Grand Prix.
Markp
29th April 2017, 16:05
They could do the whole season on 2 turbos, the 2 others can be re used for Fridays. No issue. The ICE is more critical.
Chris (@tophercheese21)
29th April 2017, 14:33
Ferrari legitimately quicker, but every car out there looked as if they had all the grip of oiled oak. What a rubbish track. Boring layout and it yields zero grip.
Hopefully a good race tomorrow, but I doubt it. It’s really not a layout that is conducive to close racing. It’s just ‘follow the leader’ really. Still, I’ll try to remain optimistic on this one :)
kpcart
29th April 2017, 17:07
Zero grip? Lap times were broken, you are exagerating too much
Ferrari, Seb fan
29th April 2017, 14:44
Yee-ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!
budchekov (@budchekov)
29th April 2017, 14:53
Hah! Hopefully the Mercedes crew have Toto and Niki under 24 hour surveillance.. the look on their faces was priceless !! Photo please Keith.
Great stuff, sure going to be worth getting up at five tomorrow.
@The cars look AWESOME. :)
AntoineDeParis (@antoine-de-paris)
29th April 2017, 15:43
upsss ;) bravo boys
Andrew Purkis
29th April 2017, 17:06
the fric ban is really starting to bite on the mercs they look skittish wear as last year they looked total planted
but they need to keep their head down and improve the car
i think ferraris reliability will cost them in the end tho especially the MGU-H/turbos but if they can take penalty’s in belgium/imola they can mitigate it (like hamilton last year)
looking forward to a proper championship !
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
29th April 2017, 17:28
Err….The FRIC ban affected Team Enstone more than anyone, and that was so long ago they’ve since made progress again (of course, it helps a lot to be backed by Renault….again).
So why wouldn’t it bite team Brackley…..until now?
And Imola?!
CarlG (@highyena)
29th April 2017, 18:07
So if Bottas is faster than Hamilton, will they still use team orders?
It’s still a long season ahead.
Markku Hänninen (@hmmh)
29th April 2017, 20:31
Bottas vs Hamilton qualification differences:
Australia: +0.293
China: +0.187
Bahrain: -0.023
Sotchi: -0.478
Loup Garou (@loup-garou)
29th April 2017, 21:48
IMO, that’s a bit harsh after only 3 races. After all, Bottas did outqualify Hamilton twice already. It is my belief that Bottas performance will improve as the season goes along and he comes to grips with the car. Very soon it might reach a stage where Merc are not sure which one of the two is more suitable to challenge Vettel for the WDC and then the proverbial will really start hitting the fan.
Loup Garou (@loup-garou)
29th April 2017, 22:04
To prove that it is not only his fans that wear Hamilton tinted glasses, here is an article by Giles Richards of The Observer about today’s qualifying.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/apr/29/russian-grand-prix-lewis-hamilton-sebastian-vettel
Can you spot the obvious error?
Minardi (@gitanes)
29th April 2017, 23:41
So the Williams pole and front row streaks from the early 90s will remain for now.
Stunned by that gap from 4th to 5th. That’s huge. I don’t see how Red Bull can make that up even with massive upgrades.