It’s Mercedes-Williams-Ferrari on the front row today and two Finnish drivers – Bottas and Raikkonen – starting P2 and P3 respectively.
Mercedes reveal it's an MGU-H issue with Hamilton's car, a similar issue to what he faced in Shanghai, that sees him start in P10 tomorrow. He’s pulled off powerful finishes before, and went P7 from P22 in Shanghai – so nothing is impossible.
CHEQUERED FLAG! Nico Rosberg on pole and it’s his second in a row. 24 career pole positions for Nico Rosberg, matching Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet. Valtteri Bottas finishes P3 but will qualify in 2nd thanks to Sebastian Vettel's grid penalty.
Rosberg is done – and with 41s to go on provisional pole. Looks like a front row with Rosberg on pole and...a Finnish podium finish! Bottas and Raikkonen both trying to improve on times.
Sebastian Vettel takes the lead shortly, but he's quickly outpaced by Nico Rosberg. Vettel won't manage to be on the front row, however, courtesy the 5-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. Vettel has pitted with Williams’ Valtteri Bottas faster than Kimi Raikkonen and close behind Sebastian Vettel. Raikkonen now gets another set of supersofts, while both Red Bulls – Ricciardo in P6 and Kvyat in P7 – are back in the garage.
Lewis Hamilton has similar problems as in Shanghai. He won’t set a time in Q3 at all.
GREEN LIGHTS and the final qualifying session is a go! Kimi Raikkonen sees Hamilton in the pitlane. Hamilton’s OUT of Q3 with a power problem!
Mercedes pair, Ferrari pair, Williams pair make up the top 6 right now as a marshal runs to pick debris off the track from Ricciardo’s dangling mirror. Force India’s Sergio Perez is in P7 and makes it to Q3!
Alonso is really pushing this...and it’s CHEQUERED FLAGS for Q2. Gutierrez and Grosjean of Haas F1 both out; Button better than Alonso but both are eliminated. Kvyat makes it! He’s in the top 10 by a hair.
Sainz, Button, Hulkenebrg, Alonso, Grosjean and Gutierrez out in Q2.
Both McLarens are in top 10 for now – and not for long with Nico Hulkenberg moving into 9th! He pushes Button down to 10th and Alonso is now in 13th. Shanghai podium winner Kvyat is in the drop zone too, in 11th ahead of Alonso. Bottas and Massa on supersofts and just getting out with 1:30 in Q2 to go.
Lewis Hamilton will have to see drivers’ stewards to explain the incident at Turn 2. Meanwhile, Vettel has gone third with a 1.286s gap to Mercedes’ Rosberg, who is currently leading.
Sebastian Vettel is now out on track and setting a time – as is teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
Carlos Sainz was the first to set a time – but right now it’s Nico Rosberg topping the timesheets with 1:35.337 and Hamilton second fastest – half a second down on his teammate. Sergio Perez of Force India behind them, with Ferrari yet to come out on track.
GREEN FLAGS for Q2! Nico Rosberg is first out on track and Fernando Alonso is getting ready to leave; again, everyone on the red supersoft compound. Alonso was in the top 10 in Q1 – can they pull off a top 10 qualifying finish?
Renault eliminated from Q1 today – they’ve continued to struggle. Sauber looked fairly quick for a bit but have also faltered. Manor also eliminated, with all other teams progressing to Q2.
Toro Rosso have done better than Red Bull this session, with Sainz very quick to go P7 behind the Williams’ of Bottas and Massa.
Ferrari have managed to narrow the gap to Mercedes slightly; this time it's Vettel who’s back in P3, with both Ferraris comfortably out of the drop zone. Right now it’s Nasr, Palmer, Magnussen, Wehrlein, Haryanto and Ericsson about to get dropped. Both Renaults, both Saubers and both Manors make up the drop zone with chequered flags now out.
Stewards are investigating incident involving car number 44 (Lewis Hamilton) for a Turn 2 incident: He rejoined on the wrong side of the barrier, so that’s now being looked at. Yellow flags as Felipe Nasr spins off track for a moment and rejoins. He’s lost valuable time, but with under 3 minutes to go in the first qualifying session, he’s likely through to Q2.
Mercedes fight! Hamilton takes the lead, then Rosberg sets a better time, and now it’s Hamilton again as he tries too go into the 1:35s! Good news for Ferrari fans, with the team saying they have solved the problems Kimi Raikkonen had with his car. Vettel now sets third-fastest time – and now Kimi Raikkonen takes a great lap to go faster than Vettel!
Unfortunately (if you’re a Ferrari fan) or fortunately (if you’re team Mercedes), the gap between Mercedes P2 (ROS) and Ferrari P3 (RAI) – is much bigger than the gap between the two Mercedes.
As predicted, most drivers are going out on supersofts. Felipe Nasr of Sauber takes his flying lap. The first out in Q1, he’s setting his time now. Sauber finished at the bottom at the end of the final practice session.
And Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein also sets a time! Nasr ahead with 1:39.548 and Wehrlein behind them with 1:40.162. Esteban Gutierrez on top with 1:38.891 followed by Haas teammate Romain Grosjean.
Reminder: Sebastian Vettel has a 5-place grid penalty for a gearbox change – so even a high qualifying finish won’t be of much use for Ferrari.
It’s time! Average speeds at Sochi are about 215km/h and it's historically a very powerful track for Mercedes. Hamilton has won each modern iteration of the race, while ‘Benz’ drivers have won it in the past – so the German manufacturers will be pleased.
The street circuit is built around the Olympic Park in the country.
10 minutes to go! We’ve been seeing good mileage from both softs and supersofts this session, so teams will likely significantly focus on the supersofts. Tyres for today: softs, super softs, and mediums.
Drivers are getting ready for qualifying at the Russian Grand Prix, with Mercedes AMG Petronas continuing their dominance well into final practice. With Nico Rosberg leading the first session, it was Lewis Hamilton who led the second and third sessions.
Ferrari, who had big issues in second practice with Vettel’s electronics failure, managed to finish today’s session, with Vettel and Raikkonen finishing the session in P3 and P4 respectively, but it would likely have been a disappointing result for those at the Prancing Horse given the gap between Ferrari and the closest Mercedes car at 0.6s. To emphasize that gap, we must note that the gap between the two Mercedes cars was only 0.06s – a tenth of that gap.
Williams did well at FP3 as well, with both Bottas and Massa high up the order.
Most drivers were on supersofts today, with Manor and McLaren both opting for the compound towards the end of the session. Supersofts did show decent durability today, with Sebastian Vettel managing to take his to a little over 20 laps with not as much degradation as expected.
Lewis Hamilton took the first two sectors fastest overall, but it was Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat who took the final sector quickest. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo looked strong early on in the session, and set fairly quick paces early on.
Predictions
For now, it looks as though it will be yet another Mercedes-dominated race, but with Lewis Hamilton looking to avenge the first three races of the season, we will perhaps see an even stronger race from the Briton.
The reigning World Champion, looking for his 44th race win this weekend, has not won a race since the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas last year. He’ll also equal Niki Lauda's 171 race starts this weekend, so there will be a number of factors motivating his race pace today and tomorrow.
Ferrari’s woes will continue – even if Sebastian Vettel finishes up the grid in qualifying, he’ll have to start midway, handed a grid penalty for a gearbox failure. Ferrari today revealed that the gearbox issue was a result of the shunt Vettel had with Kimi Raikkonen at the Chinese Grand Prix, although they did not elucidate beyond that.
Nico Rosberg looked pacey in practice and handled turns well, but Hamilton led to retain his narrow advantage in FP3.
Another fight between the Mercedes drivers on the cards today seems like the most likely outcome; Lewis Hamilton has won both the previous two races here, however, and therefore retains the slight advantage.
It’s a home race for Daniil Kvyat, and he does well, but it does not look like the 22-year-old will be able to replicate his China success in Sochi.
With dry weather and a smooth track, most drivers will want to stick to the supersofts, but there have been good results for drivers on the softs, at least in the earliest practice sessions.
