Rosberg takes Russian Grand Prix pole

Nico Rosberg claimed his second consecutive pole position in Formula 1, as the Mercedes team comfortably set the pace in qualifying at the Sochi Autodrome.

Rosberg was faster than his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton throughout the session, and he was able to deny the world championship leader a 50th career pole for the second race running.

Cool track conditions meant the drivers had to complete more than one timed lap on a set of tyres to get them up to temperature, and both Mercedes drivers only attempted one run in Q3.

Rosberg lapped 0.320 seconds faster than Hamilton on his first flying lap, before Hamilton made a mistake and went off at Turn 13 on his second run, so headed for the pits.

Rosberg was 0.160 seconds slower than his best on his second flying lap, but that didn’t matter, as his earlier time was enough to secure his third pole of the season.

Valtteri Bottas was again best-of-the-rest for Williams, fractionally clear of Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari, which improved by nearly two tenths on its second Q3 run but fell 0.053 seconds short.

Vettel’s Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen made a mistake on his second Q3 effort at the same corner as Hamilton and ended up fifth quickest, ahead of Force India duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, who were separated by less than half a tenth of a second.

Romain Grosjean’s Lotus, Max Verstappen’s Toro Rosso, and the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top ten.

Russian home hero Daniil Kvyat failed to make the top ten shootout by just under a tenth of a second, setting the P11 fastest time in Q2 and complaining: “the tyres were not ready” temperature-wise.

Felipe Nasr put in a strong performance for Sauber to set P12, just 0.111 seconds slower than Kvyat’s Red Bull.

Jenson Button was over half a second further back in P14, but faster than the second Lotus of Pastor Maldonado.

Felipe Massa made a mess of his first run in Q2 then failed to make the cut on his final run, complaining of traffic.

The Braziian was only P15, a full 1.701 seconds slower than Williams team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who was third quickest in Q2.

Fernando Alonso was the highest-profile driver to fail to make it through the first part of qualifying.

Last-gasp improvements from McLaren team-mate Button and Nasr put the double world champion out in Q1.

Russian Grand Prix, qualifying times:

1    Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m37.113s
2    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1m37.433s
3    Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m37.912s
4    Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari    1m37.965s
5    Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m38.348s
6    Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m38.659s
7    Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m38.691s
8    Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Mercedes    1m38.787s
9    Max Verstappen    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m38.924s
10    Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m39.728s
11    Daniil Kvyat    Red Bull-Renault    1m39.214s
12    Felipe Nasr    Sauber-Ferrari    1m39.323s
13    Jenson Button    McLaren-Honda    1m39.763s
14    Pastor Maldonado    Lotus-Mercedes    1m39.811s
15    Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m39.895s
16    Marcus Ericsson    Sauber-Ferrari    1m40.660s
17    Will Stevens    Marussia-Ferrari    1m43.693s
18    Roberto Merhi    Marussia-Ferrari    1m43.804s
19    Fernando Alonso    McLaren-Honda    1m40.144s
20    Carlos Sainz    Toro Rosso-Renault No time

3 thoughts to “Rosberg takes Russian Grand Prix pole”

  1. Spanish Formula One driver Carlos Sainz was hoping to race in Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix after being discharged from hospital following a big crash in final practice.

    The 21-year-old rookie was fortunate to escape serious injury after his Toro Rosso slammed into, and under, the energy absorbing Tecpro barriers at about 200kph in Saturday’s session.

    “My back and my neck are just a bit sore from the accident, but I’m totally ready,” he said in a team statement.

    “Hopefully tomorrow I will wake up in a good shape and maybe I can try and race — this is definitely the intention.”

    The accident ended practice and forced organisers to cancel a following GP3 race while extensive repairs were made to the barriers.

    Toro Rosso initially said Sainz would be kept in hospital overnight but they issued a later statement to say he had been released.

    “I hope he will have a good night’s sleep and tomorrow morning he will have to go through the FIA medical checks to decide if he will be able to take part in tomorrow’s race,” said team boss Franz Tost.

    Separately, stewards agreed to a team request to allow Sainz to race providing he was passed fit.

    Television images showed the Spaniard, strapped to a stretcher, giving a thumbs-up sign after being extracted from the wrecked car and taken to a waiting ambulance.

    Replays showed the car snapping left and hitting a concrete wall, then skidding along in a cloud of debris at turn 13 with the front left wheel dangling on tethers in front of the driver.

    “Is he OK? Because it looks like a big one,” team mate Max Verstappen asked over the team radio as the medical car sped to the scene of the impact and the paddock collectively held its breath.

    Tost said the fact the car went under the barriers was worrying and others expressed safety concerns about the installation of the barriers and the way the car had penetrated beneath them.

    “I think we’ve definitely dodged a bullet there — the car shouldn’t have gone under the barriers, absolutely not,” said Williams performance engineering head Rob Smedley.

    “That isn’t what’s supposed to happen so that’s disconcerting, to say the least, to watch.”

    Source: Eurosport

  2. Jenson Button says qualifying in 13th place for the Russian Grand Prix was unexpected, as McLaren ‘takes risks’ with its Formula 1 car with a view towards 2016.

    Button progressed to Q2 for just the fourth time this F1 season at Sochi, and then out-qualified the Mercedes-powered Lotus of Pastor Maldonado and Williams of Felipe Massa.

    While Button is braced for a tough race given Honda’s energy deployment limitations, the fact the qualifying performance came amid experimentation for the future was even more encouraging.

    “We’re running the car a little bit different to normal here, because there’s a lot of work going into next year, so that’s promising,” he said.

    “You take more risks with the car when you know you’re not really going for points.

    “You try different things and that’s what we’re doing this weekend, and what we’ll be doing for the rest of the year.

    “We’re trying things all of the time, we knew this circuit would be tough so we tried different things with the set-up and it looks like they’re working.”

    Noting that he escaped Q1 based on “actual speed, rather than any issues people had”, the 2009 world champion declared it is his best qualifying session of the season, at a circuit McLaren-Honda expected to struggle.

    “In Q1 I was only one-and-a-half tenths off 10th place, which is surprising,” he said.

    “Q2 was a little bit more normal for us, about four or five tenths off of P10.

    “I couldn’t get any grip there at the end on new tyres, I think it was the same for everyone.

    “But P13 in both sessions, I don’t think it’s too bad for us at the moment.

    “On a circuit where power is very important, it’s better than I expected. We did a good job.”

    While Fernando Alonso narrowly missed out on joining Button in Q2, he was content with the outcome, given he would have started last anyway based on a 25-place grid penalty.

    Like Button’s, his MP4-30 is running parts aimed at 2016 and beyond, and his focus turned to more testing during Sunday’s race.

    “The race is important for us,” he said. “We didn’t have any clear target in qualifying because we are starting last.

    “We have some experimental parts on the car for next year, projects, so we need to get some information about those.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  3. Q&A with Nico Rosberg, courtesy from Formula1.com:

    Pole didn’t work out for Nico Rosberg in Suzuka, where Lewis Hamilton moved ahead courtesy of a better start and an uncompromising line through the first turns. Rather than stressing about a potential repeat, however, Rosberg says his only priority is correcting past mistakes, and chasing a victory could be crucial to his championship hopes…

    Q: Nico, your second pole position in a row – and with quite a gap to your team mate. Give us your impressions!

    Nico Rosberg: Today it just felt good out there. The balance of the car was right, there was a great push and some great laps. So everything came together very well. And of course I am also very happy with the gap. (laughs)

    Q: In what way did the shorter practice session influence your race preparation?

    NR: It does make it a little bit more difficult as we haven’t done the full race preparation, so there are some unknowns – although we are quite confident that we have a good set-up in place as well as a good strategy. We are looking into a one-stop race. In general I do prefer to have more laps in the practice sessions, rather than less, to feel more comfortable in the car, but obviously this time it has affected everyone. This year is one step softer than last year, so there could be a few surprises coming up ahead.

    Q: You had a very unusual Q3 strategy this time, going out once and for four laps in total. How did this come together?

    NR: We had the feeling that we could get the tyres working best using one slow lap, an attacking second, and then the same again – a slow lap and attacking on the fourth. Surprisingly even after that the tyres were still in good shape, so we we might even have had the chance for another go if the time would have allowed us.

    Q: What chances do you have to react to any temperature changes that might occur here tomorrow?

    NR: There are not a lot of things that we can do other than changing the settings of the front wing or pushing on the tyres to get more understeer into the car – that is about all we are able to do. Let’s see if this is really necessary. For sure the few laps leading up to the grid formation will be very important as well to see how the balance of the car is, knowing that the tyre temperature will be quite a bit lower than during the race of course. I need to use these laps to get a feeling for this very situation. In regards to the engine temperatures we have to be careful with the fuel consumption here anyway, which will help to not overheat the engine. So we are not at the limit in this regard.

    Q: After the start in Japan, do you think it is necessary for you, Lewis and the team sit together again and clarify any doubts?

    NR: In general everything is clear to everyone, and we follow up the exact FIA regulations, so there is basically nothing to clarify.

    Q: There is quite a long straight before the first braking point. How much of a risk do you see going into the right-hander of Turn 2?

    NR: This time I do not intend to be in the situation of correcting any mistakes. My intention is to make the most out of an amazing start. But for sure it will be a tougher fight down the straight than at most other tracks, so we will see tomorrow.

    Q: Were you surprised at all by the advantage you have towards the non-Mercedes powered team?

    NR: Somehow yes, as we did not really know where we stood ourselves. The information prior to qualifying was that it will be very tight so in this respect I am somewhat surprised.

    Q: The best scenario of course for you would be a race win without your team mate being second. How do you think this could come together?

    NR: First of all the constructors’ title is very important to the team and for this our grid positions look very promising. For anything else I might need the help of some other drivers or teams and I am not sure if this is their intention at all. So I will do my best to win this race – anything else is not in my hands.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *