F1 | Russian GP – Rosberg on pole, Ferrari second but downgraded

Nico Rosberg is the poleman in this Russian GP, fourth event of the F1 World Championship. He doubles last year’s result, signing the 24th pole position in his carrer and the second one in the season. With an astonishing time of 1’35”417, after three consecutive successes, the leader of the World Championship managed to reduce last season’s pole position time by almost two seconds, leaving a gap of seven tenth of a second to Sebastian Vettel who ends his Q3 in the second position.

The Ferrari driver will be relegated to the seventh place for replacing the gear, and the first row will be consigned to Valtteri Bottas (Williams). Ferrari number 7,Kimi Raikkonen’s car (1’36”663) will start from the third place ahead the former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa (1’37”016) and Danilel Ricciardo’s Red Bull (1’37”025).

Everyone were waiting for a prompt response from Lewis Hamilton forced instead to raise the white flag at the beginning of Q3 for a new power-unit problem. The current World Championship will have to recover again from the tenth position at the shoulders of Sergio Perez, daniil Kvyat and Max Verstappen.

Carlos Sainz, with the second one of Toro Rosso, failed to go beyond Q2 stopping in eleventh, ahead of Jenson Button’s McLaren and Nico Hilkenberg’s Force India. Alonso gained the fourteenth place.

The GP starts at 14,00 on Sunday.