SOCHI, Russia – Valtteri Bottas had a streak to uphold going into qualifying on Saturday at Sochi Autodrom, as he had never been outqualified by a teammate at the 5.848-kilometer circuit.
Following time trials for the Russian Grand Prix, that streak remained alive, with Bottas stealing the pole position from his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Bottas lapped the Sochi track in one minute, 31.387 seconds with his No. 77 entry to earn his second pole of the season and the sixth of his Formula One career.
“It’s been a long time since I last took pole in Austria, so this feels very good! We made some changes after FP3 and the car felt even better in qualifying,” said Bottas. “I managed to find time in almost every run in qualifying; I just had to put everything together in Q3. I was able to get a really good lap in on the second run and it was enough for pole, so I’m happy.
“Our pace looked good so far … on Friday, we were very close to Ferrari and Red Bull, but today we looked strong. We should hopefully have a competitive car tomorrow,” Bottas added. “The Ferraris will be strong as well, but we should have a car that gives us the chance to fight them for a win. … Today was a good start into the weekend and puts us in a good position for tomorrow, but the main day is still ahead of us and I’ll give it everything to maintain the lead.”
Hamilton ended up second in the final session, with a best lap of 1:31.532 in his No. 44 Mercedes.
“This has never been the strongest circuit for me, but Q1 was really good. My run on the hypersoft (tires) at the end of Q2 was a great lap, but then I couldn’t repeat it in Q3,” noted Hamilton. “I was two tenths up on my final lap but I made a mistake – I went quite wide and then the back stepped out at the next corner. I think I had the pace for pole, but Valtteri did the better job this time.”
Ferrari locked out the second row of the grid, with Sebastian Vettel beating out Kimi Raikkonen for third in the final round of qualifying. Kevin Magnussen completed the top five for Haas F1 Team.
Force India’s Esteban Ocon was sixth, followed by Sauber’s Charles Leclerc, the sister Force India of Sergio Perez, Romain Grosjean in the second Haas and Marcus Ericsson for Sauber.
Neither Red Bull Racing entry made it out of Q2, with Max Verstappen ending up 11th and teammate Daniel Ricciardo landing 12th on the grid.
Those positions were by virtue of their Q1 times, as both drivers opted not to make a lap in the second round due to grid penalties that will relegate them to the back for Sunday’s race anyhow.
