Ferrari is aiming for pole at the Russian GP after leading all free practice sessions this weekends in Sochi. Sebastian Vettel was fastest before qualifying ahead of Kimi Räikkönen and Valtteri Bottas.

The Red Bulls, Ferraris, Mercedes and Stroll started the session with the ultrasoft instead of the supersoft. Ferrari seemed to be faster at first, but Hamilton ended up getting the fastest time of the first attempt with 1 tenth over Vettel. Bottas was 2 tenths slower than Hamilton on 3rd, but ahead of Räikkönen (+0.8), who asked for a set-up change. Ricciardo and Verstappen were more than a second behind the leaders, although Verstappen improved to a 0.6s difference in his 3rd attempt.

Mercedes and Ferrari gave another try to the ultrasoft and Ferrari went back to the top with Vettel ahead of Räikkönen (+0.3), Bottas (+0.4) and Hamilton (+0,5). They were followed by Verstappen, Massa, Hülkenberg, Ricciardo, Sainz and Magnussen.

Result:

POS Driver Team Time/diff.
1 Sebastian Vettel Scuderia Ferrari 1’34.001
2 Kimi Räikkönen Scuderia Ferrari 0.337
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport 0.363
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport 0.541
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1.451
6 Felipe Massa Williams Martini Racing 1.470
7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault Sport F1 Team 1.661
8 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1.829
9 Carlos Sainz Scuderia Toro Rosso 2.163
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team 2.555
11 Lance Stroll Williams Martini Racing 2.648
12 Esteban Ocon Sahara Force India F1 Team 2.675
13 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso 2.845
14 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 2.868
15 Sergio Pérez Sahara Force India F1 Team 2.961
16 Romain Grosjean Haas F1 Team 3.163
17 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Honda 3.181
18 Marcus Ericsson Sauber F1 Team 3.502
19 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber F1 Team 3.656
20 Jolyon Palmer Renault Sport F1 Team