ROSBERG RULES
Mercedes ace takes pole at Russian Grand Prix
Nico Rosberg out-qualified his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to claim pole for the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi yesterday.
Rosberg, trailing Hamilton by 48 points in the world championship, claimed his third pole of the season by three tenths of a second with a time of 1 min 37.113 sec.
It was Rosberg’s third pole of the season and the 18th of his career and came after a dramatic morning during which Spaniard Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso escaped injury when crashed heavily at Turn 13 after careering out of control at more than 300 kph.
Showing undimmed self-belief and confidence, Rosberg said: “I am very happy. It has been a difficult weekend because of the little running we got, but I got some very good laps in and I am happy with that.”
Four-time former champion Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari was fourth ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen and the two Force Indias of Nico Hulkenberg and Mexican Sergio Perez.
Romain Grosjean was eighth for Ferrari ahead of Dutch teenager Max Verstappen in his Toro Rosso and Australian Daniel Ricciardo who was 10th for Red Bull.
After another curtailed practice session during the morning, when Sainz survived his high-speed crash at Turn 13, qualifying began with the two Mercedes men, led by Rosberg, leading the way in dry conditions.
In the absence of Sainz, only four cars faced the early cut after Q1 and, after a late decision to join the fray, they were led by Fernando Alonso who marked his 250th Grand Prix by winding up in 16th place in his McLaren.
Out with him went Marcus Ericsson of Sauber and the two Manor Marussia men Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi.
It mattered little for Alonso, of course, as he faced a 25-place grid penalty after being fitted with a new Honda engine.
In Q2, Hamilton demonstrated finally that he had learned the circuit by clocking a lap in 1:37.672, faster than his team-mate by six-tenths of a second before Rosberg responded to go quicker still by 0.172 seconds.
A late effort from Ricciardo lifted him from 13th to eighth while Felipe Massa failed to make the cut into the top-10 shoot-out finishing down in 15th.