Sochi Qualifying: Bottas emerges as Ferrari pace goes AWOL

Bottas, who won last year at Sochi Autodrom, delivered a great first effort in his penultimate run of the session, four-thousandths of a second quicker than Hamilton, then in his final run he found more than a tenth to do the business on the day.

His time of 1:31.387 - an outright lap record - was almost two seconds faster than last year's pole-winning time.

The Finn said after claiming his second pole of the season, "It was a nice lap I managed to improve a little bit. It feels good, it takes some concentration. I'm really happy for sure. It is only the first step, it is a massive long run to Turn 1."

Hamilton had the edge over his teammate throughout the weekend, including Q1 and Q2, but when it mattered on his final run he made a big mistake just after he went three tenths faster than anyone in the first sector, lucky the #44 Mercedes did not tag the wall. He will start from second on the grid.

Nevertheless, it is the fifth front row lock-out by the Silver Arrows so far this season.

The world championship leader said after the session, "Big congratulations to Valtteri - he did the better job. It is a great track and it was intense. My last two laps weren't so special but at least we are still in the fight for the race"

The big mystery of the weekend is: where did Ferrari pace go?

It certainly has gone AWOL in Sochi, Sebastian Vettel was third fastest, over half a second down on the top time with teammate Kimi Raikkonen three tenths further back in fourth.

Mercedes claim they have no updates on their car, thus it has to mean Ferrari have gone the wrong direction with their setup and/or the latest direction of their updates has not worked and might have even impacted their earlier season pace.

Vettel summed up his afternoon, "They have been very quick but tomorrow is a long race. I made a tiny mistake in the final sector but l had to try. I'm quite happy."

He added, "I just spoke to Valtteri and reminded him what happened last year so maybe we can turn that around this time. It was important to get as close to them but it is true they have been very quick. it is a long race and the tyres will be important."

"We should've been a lot closer. I'm quite happy, the car felt alright so that makes me happy. If there is a gap we will go for it," added Vettel.

With penalty ridden Red Bull drivers electing to not make it beyond Q2 for strategy reasons, fifth place was up for grabs to the Best of the Rest brigade who were 1.8 seconds off the benchmark time.

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen admitted that he surprised himself when he saw his name in fifth place on the timing screens, 0.3 of a second ahead of Force India's Esteban Ocon who just nipped sixth from Charles Leclerc's Sauber in seventh.

Sergio Perez was eighth in the other Force India, a tenth and a bit slower than Ocon in the sister car.

The other Haas of Romain Grosjean was ninth, six a tenths of a second slower than his teammate in fifth. Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top ten in the second Sauber.

Due to penalties or strategy, neither Red Bull drivers or Renault drivers or Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly did any laps in Q2, the five cars opting not to set a time.

The session was dominated by Mercedes from the start. In Q1, Hamilton ran half a second ahead of Bottas and almost a second ahead of Vettel and Raikkonen as the segment entered its final minutes.

Verstappen and Ricciardo then appeared and both quickly made their way to the sharp end of the order, with Verstappen eventually claiming P3 just ahead of Ricciardo. Vettel and Raikkonen finished fourth and fifth.

In the drop zone and eliminated at the end of the session were Hartley in 16th place, followed by Alonso, Sirotkin, who spun on his final lap and Stroll.

Hamilton was again to the fore in the second segement, a time of 1:32.595, once more putting him ahead of his team-mate. Vettel again slotted into third place ahead of Räikkönen, with both Ferrari drivers four tenths of a second off the pace of Mercedes’ quickest man.

Further down the order, five drivers elected to sit out the session, with Verstappen and Ricciardo, Renault’s Sainz and Hulkenberg, and Gasly all remaining garage bound throughout. Red Bull, Toro Rosso and McLaren are facing heavy grid penalties for tomorrow’s race.

Their inactivity led to the strange situation that the top 10 on the timesheet after the opening runs were assured of progression to Q3 and would not need to run. Nevertheless, a number of teams took to the track in the closing stages of Q2, including Mercedes and Ferrari. However, the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers backed out of final runs on hypersofts and so will start on the ultrasoft tyres used in their opening Q2 runs.

In Q3, Hamilton’s dominance of the session came to an end. Bottas seized the initiative, setting an opening time of 1:31.528. The lap left him 0.004s up on Hamilton. Ferrari were again some way back, with Vettel 0.639s off Bottas in third and Räikkönen another tenth back in fourth. Ocon was fifth, just 0.006s of a second ahead of Leclerc.

And in the final runs Bottas held his nerve to claim a sixth career pole position. First, across the line, the Finn improved to a time of 1:31.387. Behind him on track, Hamilton was quicker through the first sector, but he then made a mistake, running wide in Turn 7. With too much time lost, Hamilton abandoned his lap and handed top spot to his team-mate.

Vettel took third, half a second adrift of Bottas, while Räikkönen is set to line up in fourth place.

Magnussen put in an impressive final lap to claim best-of-the-rest status at the front of row three, with Ocon sixth ahead of Leclerc, Perez, Grosjean and Ericsson.