Qualifying Report - 38 Special

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will start on the front row for the inaugural Russian Grand Prix. It was Hamilton's 38th career pole.

"It's going to be tough tomorrow because there is a long lead down to Turn 1," Hamilton said.

Rosberg said: "Lewis was quicker all weekend. But the front row is okay and everything is possible in the race."

Valtteri Bottas almost made it onto the front row but slid off the track in his Williams. So he ended up third.

"It is not nice to make a mistake," he said. "I took too much out of the tires in the beginning of the lap, and the last sector became a bit more tricky."

Qualifying 1

Kevin Magnussen's McLaren needed a new gearbox installed for qualifying, and that means he would get a five place grid penalty.

Five rather than six drivers would be eliminated from Q1 as Marussia was running only one car this weekend.

The Mercedes drivers set the early pace with Nico Rosberg clocking a 1:39.292 and Lewis Hamilton a 1:40.061

"Nico, we expect that to be quick enough to get through but we'll still do another lap," radioed Rosberg's engineer.

8 minutes into the session, Hamilton improved to a 1:39.282.

9 minutes into the session, Rosberg set a 1:39.076.

The top 10 were now Rosberg, Hamilton, Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Daniil Kvyat, Jenson Button (McLaren), Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso), Kevin Magnussen (McLaren), Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber), Adrian Sutil (Sauber) and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari).

Felipe Massa was struggling with his Williams that had a fuel pressure problem.

Romain Grosjean (Lotus) was 16th and on the bubble with Massa 17th and then 18th. So Massa's woes meant that he was out of luck and did not make the cut to Q2.

"Basically I had no power," Massa said, "and it looked like there was a problem with the fuel pressure, we were not getting enough fuel into the engine. I'm very disappointed because the car is really competitive here, but now I have to focus for the race. I can go back to one of my old engines if necessary, so that's not an issue, but today's result is massively disappointing."

The top 10 at the end of Q1 were: Hamilton, Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Button, Magnussen, Kvyat, Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) and Vergne.

The five drivers out were: Marcus Ericsson (Caterham), Massa, Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham), Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) and Max Chilton (Marussia).

"Interesting that none of the teams felt confident enough to do Q1 with the medium compound only; not often that this happens," Pirelli Tweeted.

Qualifying 2

Sergio Perez (Force India) set the early pace with a 1:40.163 but Button soon went quicker. All the drivers were using the soft Pirelli tires.

Rosberg clocked a 1:38.979 to go on top, but Bottas sliced a few tenths off of that. Then Hamilton roared by to clock a time six-tenths of a second quicker.

The Ferrari drivers were doing a series of slow laps to get heat into their tires. The Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo were struggling with a lack of grip and Vettel was down in 15th place.

With 2 minutes remaining in the session, Raikkonen was 10th and on the bubble ahead of Perez in 11th.

Vettel could only manage the 11th best time and therefore didn't make the cut.

The top 10 at the end of Q2 were: Hamilton, Rosberg, Bottas, Magnussen, Kvyat, Button, Ricciardo, Alonso, Raikkonen and Vergne.

The six drivers eliminated at the end of Q2 were: Vettel, Hulkenberg, Perez, Gutierrez, Sutil and Grosjean.

"Unfortunately, Seb has not managed to get a lap together with a balance he is happy with," Red Bull boss Christian Horner told the BBC. "We have not heard too much from him. Unfortunately he couldn't do a lap which was good enough."

Vettel commented: "We probably overshot it with the set-up for qualifying and compared to the morning I just didn't have the rear end grip I had before. We thought the track would come up a bit more towards us but that was not the case. Things were already not good in Q1 and in Q2 it was the same thing and we were kicked out."

Qualifying 3

The 12 minute Q3 session began with Bottas on a flier, but it was Ricciardo who set the top time of 1:40.076.

But that didn't last long as Rosberg took first ahead of Bottas, Button, Alonso, Kvyat, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Vergne, Raikkonen and Magnussen.

Then Ricciardo popped up to fourth.

With 4 minutes remaining in the session, Hamilton was on another quick lap and grabbed the top spot with a 1:38.467.

Rosberg was quick but lost three-tenths in the final sector and thus was in second place behind Hamilton.

Hamilton then improved to a 1:38.513 to clinch his seventh pole of the season.

In the final seconds Bottas set the quickest times in the first two sectors but slid wide in Turn 17 in the final sector and lost seventh tenths of a second.

The top 10 qualifiers at the end of Q3 were: Hamilton, Rosberg, Bottas, Button, Kvyat (his career best), Magnussen, Ricciardo, Alonso, Raikkonen and Vergne.