FERRARI DOMINATE
Vettel and Raikkonen outpace Mercedes duo in qualifying
CHAMPIONSHIP leader Sebastian Vettel grabbed pole position yesterday ahead of Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen for the Russian Grand Prix.
The four-time world champion led the way outpacing Raikkonen by 0.059 seconds with another Finn, Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes, third fastest with less than tenth of a second separating the top three.
Britain’s Lewis Hamilton was fourth fastest, the first time Mercedes had failed to have car on the front row for 31 races.
Vettel will be looking to claim his third win of the season today and extend his seven-point standings lead over Hamilton.
It was Vettel’s first pole this year, his second for Ferrari and the 47th of his career — and, perhaps more significantly, Ferrari’s first front row lockout for 127 races since the 2008 French Grand Prix.
A delighted Vettel screamed “yes, yes, yes” as the news of his pole was relayed to him on his slowdown lap.
“If you have the rhythm here, it feels fantastic,” Vettel said.
Hamilton, struggling and disappointed, was more than half a second adrift.
Vettel’s success also brought to an end Mercedes’ run of 18 straight pole positions dating back to last year’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Raikkonen said he was “happier than the previous qualifyings”, despite missing out by a whisker on what would have been his first pole for nine years.
“It’s hard to understand how we’re going to make it better,” said Raikkonen.
The Sochi track has previously suited Mercedes, which had been looking to strike back at Ferrari after Vettel won the last race in Bahrain.
“Going into this weekend, we were thinking it's probably going to be better than Bahrain,” Bottas said. “For sure, definitely it’s disappointing for us not to be on pole.”
Still, Bottas suggested he and Hamilton could ambush the Ferraris at the first corner today.
“Second-row start here is not that bad a thing. It’s a pretty long run into turn one,” he said. Agencies