At the end of today’s qualifying at Russia’s Sochi Circuit, Sebastian Vettel was second fastest with a lap in 1.36.123.
Behind the German came Valtteri Bottas for Williams, while Kimi Raikkonen was fourth in 1.36.663. Vettel has a five place grid penalty following a gearbox change and so he starts from the fourth row of the grid tomorrow.
Pole position went to Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes who posted a best time of 1.35.417.
Kimi Raikkonen
“The whole weekend has been tricky: for whatever reason, I struggled all the time to put one decent lap together. In qualifying it was a bit better, but I was still fighting with the front end in a few places. It could have been good enough for a second or a third place on the grid, but on my last lap I completely missed the last corner and slid away. Obviously I’m a disappointed with what happened, but considering how difficult it has been, this result it’s not ideal but it’s better than nothing. At least we are in third place at the start, we’ll see what happens tomorrow, I think in the race it’s going to be better.”
Sebastian Vettel
“Yesterday we lost some time, but today I think we recovered. Now I’m waiting for the race. I will start seventh which is not where we belong, so we should be quicker than the other cars around and go from there. The car is good, so I am confident for tomorrow. We are not the favorites, but there’s always a chance. I hope not to get it wrong this time. For sure we need to start improving as soon as possible, that’s why we are pushing very hard. We are doing everything we can, we have a new engine here, and I think we are on the right way, but we still see that other people, especially Mercedes, are doing a good job as well. If you want to be the best you need to be ready to tackle the best. I have high confidence, but let’s keep our feet on the ground. It is easy to get overexcited and for sure now we would like to be first, but that’s the nature of the game. We are wisely spending our energy looking at ourselves, trying to make improvements. Time will teach us…”