Uphill battle for
LEWIS Hamilton will have it all to do to win today’s Russian Grand Prix as he qualified only fourth while title rival Sebastian Vettel secured his first pole position in nearly two years.
Championship leader Vettel, who heads Hamilton by seven points in the title race, ended Mercedes’ streak of 18 consecutive poles with a brilliant final lap following a nailbiting session here at the Sochi Autodrom.
Vettel heads an all-Ferrari front row with Kimi Raikkonen second on the grid and Valtteri Bottas third.
Hamilton, mysteriously off-colour for much of the weekend here, was more than half a second behind Vettel, who celebrated his pole in raucous fashion over the team radio.
The last time Vettel started from pole was at the Singapore Grand Prix back in 2015, but his and Ferrari’s pace in Russia so far this weekend would appear to point towards a changing of the guard, with Hamilton’s Mercedes team having dominated the sport for the past three seasons.
Indeed, Mercedes have a great record in these parts having won all of the three grands prix staged here while leading every lap. But they, and in particular Hamilton, have struggled for form, with Ferrari now only cementing their status as real challengers for both the drivers’ and constructors’ crown.
Hamilton was nearly six-tenths of a second behind Vettel, and almost half a second down on Bottas. His sluggish pace was greeted by crossed arms from Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda in the Mercedes garage, with the latter puffing out his cheeks and shaking his head.
For Vettel he was jubilant to seal his 47th career pole.
“It is a very good result and I am sure that everyone is happy and very proud,” he said. “The car was phenomenal this afternoon and it was a real pleasure to take the car around on low fuel and drive it to the limit.” Vettel added: “In Q3 the first run was not really tidy so I left it to the end and I got a good lap in. I knew it would be tight and I knew I would be first across the line. “I immediately opened the radio and asked my engineer to tell me about the others. When I got the message we got the pole I was over the moon. A big thank you to the team.”
Raikkonen, who will start alongside Vettel as Ferrari locked out the front row for the first time in nine years, added: “I am happier than in previous qualifyings but we had all the tools to be at the front today. A one-two for the team is not too bad.”
Bottas, who out-qualifies Hamilton for a second race in succession, said: “We can clearly see from the result that Ferrari was quicker today. We were close in the end but not quite enough and, to be honest, all weekend they have had the upper hand.
“We are on the second row and as