Bottas challenges for Russia pole, as Massa drops out early - Hamilton takes pole as the order gets mixed up behind him
Published by Christine
The Williams team had a mixed qualifying session in Sochi, with one driver at the top and one at the bottom of the grid. Felipe Massa never quite looked on the pace as he headed out in Q1, and it soon became clear there was a problem. Initially reported as a fuel pressure issue, Massa was left down on pace and dropped out in that first session. He was joined by Pastor Maldonado who also had reliability issues.
Valtteri Bottas, however, sailed through Q2 and made his way into the top ten shootout. The Mercedes drivers were so busy battling each other, that they failed to notice the speed of Bottas until the last minute. On his final flying lap, the Finn set the first two fastest sectors and looked on for a great result, until his tyres gave up and he ran wide at the final corner. He finished third overall, with Lewis Hamilton taking pole and Nico Rosberg finishing second.
Other results included Sebastian Vettel missing out on the top ten, in 11th, plus five place grid drops for Chilton, who was last anyway, Hülkenberg and Magnussen.
