Ferrai pulled off their first front-row lockout in almost nine years, with Sebastian Vettel claiming a brilliant pole for the Russian Grand prix ahead of his team mate Kimi Raikkonen. It's only Vettel's second pole since he joined Ferrari - and the 47th of his Formula 1 career.
It had been Raikkonen who had thrown down the gauntlet early. His first run in the final round of qualifying clocked in at 1:33.253s, almost two tenths faster than Vettel's initial attempt.
Having earlier topped both Q1 and Q2, Valtteri Bottas was then able to split the two Ferraris but missed out on provisional pole by 0.036s. His Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton's own first effort saw mistakes in the final sector, dropping him to fourth.
Vettel was the first man out for a second bite at the cherry. He took advantage of a cooler and momentarily clear track to claim pole with a time of 1:33.194s, almost six hundredths faster than Raikkonen. Neither Bottas nor Hamilton could respond and they will have start Sunday's race from the second row.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo took fifth place on the grid ahead of Williams' Felipe Massa, who was half a tenth ahead of Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver will start on the fourth row alongside Renault's Nico Hulkenberg.
Force India team mates Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon also made it through to the third round top-ten pole shootout, and will start Sunday's race from ninth and tenth respectively.
Palmer ends Q1 in the tyre wall
Bottas took control of Q1 with his first flying lap. He improved to 1:34.041s on his next attempt, almost a second faster than Vettel and Raikkonen. However the Ferraris were the only cars on supersoft tyres for the first round, with everyone else having gone straight onto ultrasofts. Even so, the smooth Sochi circuit meant everyone could try multiple flying laps on the same set of tyres.
Verstappen split the Ferraris with his next effort. After an untidy first lap, Hamilton then opened his account by going second, albeit a third of a second off Bottas' benchmark. Raikkonen was able to improve on his final lap to demote Verstappen back to fifth. The top four were comfortable enough to sit out the final minutes of Q1 in the garage.
Fighting to avoid elimination were the McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, the Saubers of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson, and the Haas of Romain Grosjean. Alonso was able to pull himself out of danger with his final run putting him into 14th, which dropped Jolyon Palmer into the danger zone in his stead.
Palmer's response was curtailed when his Renault skipped over the kerbing into turn 4, which put the car into the tyre wall. Wehrlein also had a spin of his own in a separate incident in the final sector. The yellow flags meant no one else could improve, confirming Vandoorne, Ericsson and Grosjean as joining Palmer and Wehrlein on the sidelines.
Both Toro Rossos miss out in Q2
Q2 started under yellow while Palmer's car was being recovered. Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Lance stroll were the first to set times once the track was clear. This time even both Ferraris were straight out on the ultrasoft compound.
Bottas put in a blistering time of 1:33.264s to go top, half a second faster than his team mate. Both Ferraris were a further quarter of a second further back. In fifth place Verstappen was almost two seconds off Bottas' time.
Their work done for this round, both Mercedes drivers headed to pit lane safeguarding their set of race tyres. By contrast, both Ferraris were back out for another run. Vettel ran wide and didn't improve his time, but Raikkonen moved into second a tenth ahead of Hamilton.
Perez left his sole flying lap late but managed to finish ninth just ahead of his team mate Ocon. That knocked Carlos Sainz into the drop zone along with his Toro Rosso team mate and local hero Dannil Kvyat. Also eliminated were Stroll, Alonso and the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
Qualifying Results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:34.493s | 1:34.038s | 1:33.194s |
| 2 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:34.953s | 1:33.663s | 1:33.253s |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:34.041s | 1:33.264s | 1:33.289s |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:34.409s | 1:33.760s | 1:33.767s |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:35.560s | 1:35.483s | 1:34.905s |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:35.828s | 1:35.049s | 1:35.110s |
| 7 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:35.301s | 1:35.221s | 1:35.161s |
| 8 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1:35.507s | 1:35.328s | 1:35.285s |
| 9 | Sergio Pérez | Force India | 1:36.185s | 1:35.513s | 1:35.337s |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1:35.372s | 1:35.729s | 1:35.430s |
| 11 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:35.827s | 1:35.948s | |
| 12 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 1:36.279s | 1:35.964s | |
| 13 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:35.984s | 1:35.968s | |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:36.408s | 1:36.017s | |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:36.353s | 1:36.660s | |
| 16 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1:36.462s | ||
| 17 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1:37.070s | ||
| 18 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber | 1:37.332s | ||
| 19 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:37.507s | ||
| 20 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:37.620s |
GALLERY: All the pictures from Saturday in Sochi
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