2017 Russian Grand Prix - Sochi Autodrom, April 28-30

[matt_b]

Thought the gap would be bigger than 0.095 between Ferrari and Mercedes looking at the free practice sessions. Would love to see a 2 stop vs a 1 stop between the teams tomorrow with some tension at the end.

[Chene_Mostert]

Sebastian and Kimmi Bullying the Mercedes Power Plus Team drivers on their own "playground"
"easy Merc pole according to arm chair ex - Spurts"

[DarkSurferZA]

Well I didn't see that coming. A Merc out-qualied in a power circuit 0_0 .

I think that Merc hasn't spent much time as the chasing car and they seem to be over-driving and over-doing the setup. I can't recall the last time a Merc didn't look on rails (fastest car or not).

Oh, and about time Ferrari locked out the front row. Well done Ferrari

Edit was to fix an autocorrect

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[SparkyAMG]

If there was any doubt left over the performance of that Ferrari, surely that confirms that this could very well be their year.

The Mercedes can be quick but seems tricky to set up and looked a handful today. They've got a lot of work to do to keep in touch with Ferrari.

Looked like Hamilton lost about 3 tenths to Vettel in each of S2 and S3 and has looked uncomfortable in the car all weekend to be honest.

I wouldn't be surprised if the top 4 finished as they start.

[Chene_Mostert]

Well I didn't see that coming. A Merc out-qualied in a power circuit 0_0 .

I think that Merc hasn't spent much time as the chasing car and they seem to be over-the-counter and over-doing the setup. I can't recall the last time a Merc didn't look on rails (fastest car or not).

Oh, and about time Ferrari locked out the front row. Well done Ferrari

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Merc is very "complex" 6 months more "refined" than the rest, a lot more developed but... slower on "their" power circuit, and it was not even hot.

[Wynters]

Brilliant job by Ferrari! Good job from Massa too, will be an interesting battle during the race. Good to see Kimi in the same ball park as Vettel and Bottas smashing Hamilton. Keeps the interteam battles nice and tight.

Ferraris should waltz away from the Mercs tomorrow and the Mercs should watz away from the rest of the field so the top 4 are likely already set in stone. Best of the rest should be a series of good battles though.

Jo Palmer ... sigh, more like Face Palmer. I hope he's bringing a lot of money to Renault beacuse he's going to cost them in the final standings.

[Sevach]

Mercedes was fast only in S1 which is largely full throttle.

Kimi had a magical S3 in his first attempt, Vettel was .25 up after S2 and finished the lap just .05, no wonder he bottled trying to improve on that.
Hamilton just off completely, you don't see that often.

[Wass85]

Absolutely abysmal performance from Hamilton, if that was Bottas folk would be begging for him to be sacked.

[f1316]

I for one will admit to getting it completely wrong - I thought Ferrari had a great chance at pole in Bahrain and basically no chance here...shows what I (and in fairness lots of other people) know!

Very interested to see the 'reason' certain forum members give for why Mercedes are "clearly" better and Ferrari are awful/incompetent/responsible for all the evil in the world...

[ripper]

Tomorrow is gonna be a tough race, Mercedes in s1 is very strong and might be extremely hard to pass them if they get past Ferrari on race start.

We will see tomorrow, that's gonna be a very interesting race!

[FrukostScones]

only question now is, will the SWB Mercedes ready for Monaco, bahhahahahahahahaha

[atanatizante]

Mercedes was fast only in S1 which is largely full throttle.

Kimi had a magical S3 in his first attempt, Vettel was .25 up after S2 and finished the lap just .05, no wonder he bottled trying to improve on that.
Hamilton just off completely, you don't see that often.

Bottas was 2 tenths quicker and Lewis 3 in the first sector so maybe they were set the car with a bit of low wing for overtaking in the race and that was affecting them in the second and mainly in the third twisted sector
But I repeat: they were the most affected by the FRIC ban and Di Resta underlined that after qualy on Skypad commentating Vettel vs. Lewis pole lap. Lewis was wobbling on the bumps in turn 5,7,8 and most of all in turn 15 when he lost at least 2 tenths only on that particular bump ...

But is also fair to say that Ferrari has the best traction and was helping them a lot in those at least 8 turns at 90 degree angle ...

[Bill_Kar]

Well, after 4 races Ferrari is the better car officially. Merc seems very confused and if they don't find the way to bounce back it's gonna be over before it starts.
Hamilton's putting one of his worst performance in Q and you can't blame solely the car.Even if it's good tomorrow, it won't be as good as Ferrari.

I really want to congratulate Ferrari.Great work and effort and to see them coming at the top after all this pressure, it surprises me in a good sense.

[Artur Craft]

I'm surprised. I thought Mercedes would bring it to high 32s. Already expected Ferraris on low 33s, so that, at least, wasn't surprising to me.

Great to see Kimi being fast! He just needed better S1/S2 which are not as tricky sectors as the last one where Kimi shone.

Renault 4 tenths slower than RB but they will be nowhere in the race, once again.

If you compare Massa, and Hamilton, to Bottas on these last two tracks, they had pretty similar performance, relative to the Finn. Is Massa really that undeserving of a seat? I honestly thought his time in F1 was done and that he needed to go but it seems the guy still has what it takes to be in F1

Tomorrow there will be 0 overtakes on this race but don't put it on the new cars alone(I'm really liking that overtaking became a challenge again), this track is just dreadful.

[godlameroso]

Top 3 separated by less than .1 seconds. Insane, Hamilton must have made a mistake somewhere. Can't wait for the Juzh comparison laps.