For the first time since 2008, two Ferraris will start from the front row of the grid. Sebastian Vettel got pole position in Sochi and was closely followed by Kimi Räikkönen and Valtteri Bottas.
Palmer ended Q1 with a crash against the wall, while Wehrlein made a mistake too which cost him a spin in his last attempt. They were both eliminated in P16 and P18, together with Vandoorne (16th), Ericsson (19th) and Grosjean (20th).
Mercedes seemed to have found their qualifying pace once again and Bottas led Q2 ahead of Räikkönen. Sainz almost made it through to Q3, but he was P11. The Spaniard will start P14 due to the penalty he got at the Bahrain GP for his crash with Stroll, who was 12th in today’s qualifying. Kvyat, Magnussen and Alonso were out in Q2.
Räikkönen had provisional pole after the first attempt in Q3, but Sebastian Vettel stole it from him by less than a tenth. Bottas was 3rd, very close to the Ferraris, while Hamilton didn’t have a good day and was P4, half a second behind. Ricciardo was 5th, 1.7s behind Vettel. Massa, Verstappen, Hülkenberg, Pérez and Ocon completed the top 10.
