Nico Rosberg on pole in Sochi as Lewis Hamilton suffers more engine problems

Nico Rosberg beat Sebastian Vettel to pole position for the Russian Grand Prix as his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton exited the session early after suffering a power unit problem in qualifying for the second Formula 1 race in a row.

Rosberg ultimately took pole with a 1m35.417s, which was 0.7s quicker than Vettel, who claimed Ferrari’s best ever result in qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix but he will start seventh after taking a new gearbox earlier in the weekend.

Mercedes ended Rosberg’s session two minutes early, as the championship leader was already comfortable faster than Vettel, and he had made a mistake at Turn 13 on his final flying lap in Q3.

Ordinarily that error may cost Rosberg, but although he had easily made it through to Q3, Hamilton did not take part in the final segment of qualifying after he suffered the same power unit failure that stuck his car in Shanghai on the out lap of his second run in Q2.

The world champion had already been placed under investigation in Q1 for ignoring the race director’s instructions at Turn 2. Hamilton appeared to carry too much speed into the track’s first braking zone, ran wide and then rejoined the circuit without rounding the white line that the drivers have been told they must respect. The stewards will look into the incident after the session.

Valtteri Bottas qualified third at Sochi for the third year in succession, but the Finn will start second after Vettel’s penalty is applied tomorrow.

Raikkonen, who collided with Bottas during the Russian race in 2015, could not beat the Williams driver to the third fastest time in the second Ferrari and qualified fourth as a result.

Speaking after the session, Rosberg said: “To be honest I was quite confident that the lap was good enough out there because in Q2 I knew that Ferrari was quite far away and that Lewis was not able to participate in the last part of qualifying, so I was fairly sure that it was going to be enough.

“But you never know, so there was the remaining uncertainty and I was glad eventually when Sebastian crossed the line and that it was good enough. I didn’t know [all of] these factors. Of course I knew [about] Sebastian but I didn’t really [know] about Lewis until just now and I was just focused on myself out there and really going for it and feeling great about it.

“It was going really great today, from Q2 onwards it just felt awesome. Of course the others have definitely been extremely unfortunate today [and] that makes my race a little bit easier tomorrow.

“But an F1 race is never easy and of course even from where Sebastian is and where Kimi is and with Valtteri behind and everything, the opposition is still there. [I] still need to keep focused and get the job done as good as possible.”

Felipe Massa finished fifth in the second Williams, just in front of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who progressed through from Q2 despite his right-hand wing mirror coming off on his final lap in that segment, and the Australian ended up sixth.

Sergio Perez qualified seventh for Force India at the track where he finished on the podium last season, with home favourite Daniil Kvyat eighth in the second Red Bull.

Max Verstappen finished ninth ahead of Hamilton, who did not set a time in Q3 after his power unit problems.

Carlos Sainz will start 11th after Kvyat improved with a late run to knock the Toro Rosso driver out in the dying seconds of Q2.

At McLaren, Jenson Button got within 0.1s of reaching Q3 for the first time since 2014 but will start 12th, just ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, who described his Q2 laps as, “as good as it gets,” in the second Force India.

Fernando Alonso qualified 14th, with Haas F1’s Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez 15th and 16th. During the opening runs of Q2, Grosjean ran off the track at the penultimate corner and repeatedly asked his team, “what’s happening on the car?”

In Q1, the Renault pair of Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer both looked to be struggling with rear downforce in their RS16s and neither managed to escape the opening segment of qualifying and will start 17th and 18th.

Felipe Nasr ended up 19th, just in front of Manor’s Pascal Werhlein and Rio Haryanto, and his Sauber teammate Marcus Ericsson, who will start last on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

Russian Grand Prix Qualifying results:

Q3 Pos

1 Nico Rosberg, Mercedes 1m35.417s

2 Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari 1m36.123s, +0.706s *Has grid penaly

3 Valtteri Bottas, Williams 1m36.536s, +1.119s

4 Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari 1m36.663s, +1.246s

5 Felipe Massa, Williams 1m37.016s, +1.599s

6 Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull 1m37.125s, +1.708s

7 Sergio Perez, Force India 1m37.212s, +1.795s

8 Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull 1m37.459s, +2.042s

9 Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso 1m37.583s, +2.166s

10 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes *No time set in Q3

Q2

11 Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso 1m37.652s

12 Jenson Button, McLaren 1m37.701s

13 Nico Hulkenberg, Force India 1m37.771s

14 Fernando Alonso, McLaren 1m37.807s

15 Romain Grosjean, Haas 1m38.055s

16 Esteban Gutierrez, Haas 1m38.115s

Q1

17 Kevin Magnussen, Renault 1m38.914s

18 Jolyon Palmer, Renault 1m39.009s

19 Felipe Nasr, Sauber 1m39.018s

20 Pascal Wehrlein, Manor 1m39.399s

21 Rio Haryanto, Manor 1m39.463s

22 Marcus Ericsson, Sauber 1m39.519s