Russia Pole Goes To Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton will start the Russian Grand Prix from pole position after narrowly beating teammate and championship rival Nico Rosberg in Sochi.

Whilst Mercedes locked out the front row the starts of the session were the McLaren pair of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen who will line up tomorrow in fourth and sixth place.

Valtteri Bottas in the closing stages looked as if he had the pace to challenge the Mercedes for a spot on the front row, unfortunately for the Fin he made an error at the final two corners. Bottas will line up tomorrow in an impressive third place for Williams.

Whilst Bottas shone, the same cannot be said for his teammate Felipe Massa. The Brazilian suffered a fuel pressure problem which resulted in Massa qualifying in a lonely eighteenth place and being out qualified by the likes of Marcus Ericsson and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean.

Daniil Kvyat also impressed after putting his Toro Rosso in an outstanding fifth place at his first home Grand Prix, teammate Jean-Eric Vergne also made his way into the final part of qualifying and rounds out the top ten.

The Q1 casualties included the soul running Marussia of Max Chilton, Pastor Maldonado, Kamui Kobayashi, Felipe Massa and Marcus Ericsson.

Lewis Hamilton once again set the pace in the second part of qualifying. On a track that the Mercedes powered cars would be at an advantage. Neither Force India managed to progress into the top ten shootout, both Sauber’s followed the Force India’s with Esteban Gutierrez beating teammate Adrian Sutil.

Sebastian Vettel was the big name to drop out in the second part of qualifying, the German who announced last weekend that he is to leave Red Bull at the end of this season struggled throughout the entire session. Vettel will start in eleventh place and has a lot of overtaking in the race tomorrow from the middle of the pack.

Ferrari had a difficult day in Russia with the Ferrari pair lingering in eighth and ninth place with Fernando Alonso starting ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

Looking ahead to the race tomorrow it looks to be a straight fight between the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, whilst the fight looks to be between the championship leaders it looks as if Hamilton has just enough in hand to make it win number four in succession.

Behind the Mercedes battle, the fight between for the final podium place looks to be fierce. The McLaren pace on the prime harder tyre during the race simulation was within touches distance of pacesetters Mercedes, we could be in for McLaren’s first podium since Australia.

Below is a full rundown of the grip for tomorrow’s Russian Grand Prix: