Hamilton on his way to Pole position in Russia
Sat, Oct 11th 2004 – Mercedes Petronas AMG drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg finished first and second in qualifying this afternoon for the 2014 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix in Sochi. The team scored a fifth consecutive front-row lockout – and its ninth in all in 2014 – this afternoon in Sochi. Lewis’ 38th career pole position marks the team’s 15th pole from 16 races during the 2014 season and both drivers completed just three runs in qualifying, using one set of option tyres in each part of the session. This marks the fifth time in 2014 that Mercedes-powered cars have secured the top four qualifying positions. Valtteri Bottas showed strong pace and pushed the Mercedes cars hard for a front row position, but ultimately his tyres went away in the final corners on his final run to come in third fastest.
Lewis Hamilton, Pole -It’s an amazing feeling to come to this beautiful place and to race on this track. It’s fun to drive. Today, the laps in practice felt more special. In qualifying it seemed a bit harder to get that special lap but I’m grateful that I was able to improve. I crossed the line and I was just hoping I got it; when they tell you, it’s the biggest relief – a great feeling. The corners are mostly medium and high speed where you need a lot of downforce, so tomorrow should be a challenge. It’s a long run down to Turn One and we need to be mindful there are opportunities to overtake here. It was great to see such a strong turnout for the first Saturday of running at this new track. Hopefully we can give them a good show tomorrow.
Nico Rosberg 2nd -That was a very difficult qualifying today; we had to adapt a lot of things. The track is new and so unique: the tyres last very long as the surface is very smooth. Lewis was just quicker today so I need to have a good start tomorrow. Starting from the front-row is still a good position to begin the race. I guess this will be an exciting Grand Prix; there will be some opportunities to overtake on the straights and I am sure we will see plenty of action on track.
Valtteri Bottas, Williams 3rd- I took a bit too much out of the tyres in the first two sectors and they started to fall away in the final corners and this maybe cost us a chance of finishing on the front row. Mercedes have looked very strong in the final sector all weekend so I don’t think pole was possible but it would have been good to see where that lap would have put me. The benefit is that we will be starting on the cleaner side of the grid and this could be very beneficial on a new track with a lot of dirt off line. Third is a good result and we have strong race pace so hopefully we can battle with the Mercedes cars and secure another podium finish tomorrow.
