There was finally some Saturday track action at a wet Sochi in the qualifying session for the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, after the third free practice session was cancelled.
As Q1 began, and all drivers were out on the intermediate tyres, including Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, despite the fact that the Monegasque driver and Max Verstappen both have penalties and will start at the back regardless. Charles, who showed some good reflexes to avoid Antonio Giovinazzi, set a time in Q1 and thus moved to Q2, just like Carlos Sainz. Kimi Raikkonen, Mick Schumacher, Antonio Giovinazzi, Nikita Mazepin and Max Verstappen, Red Bull (no time set) were out at the end of Q1.
In Q2 Ferrari saw no more reason to send Charles back on track: the Monegasque driver, facing a penalty, was out of the car and done for qualifying. For Carlos Sainz it was not easy to reach the final stage, but the Spanish driver eventually scraped through in 10th, by five hundredths of a second, with Sebastian Vettel, Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri, Yuki Tsunoda, Nicholas Latifi (no time set) and Charles Leclerc (no time set) out.
Everyone was on intermediate tyres in the start for the pole shootout, but soon many drivers were gambling for slick tyres, with Carlos Sainz being one of them, as the Spanish driver came back on track with the Softs. And the gamble paid off as Carlos was able to set a great lap time to finish in second place, behind the McLaren of Lando Norris. The midfield drivers certainly made the most of those soft tyres – while Lewis Hamilton spun on his final lap. George Russell will start Sunday’s race from third place.
Results (Classification):
Q3
Lando Norris McLaren – 1:41.993
Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari +0.517
George Russell Williams Racing +0.990
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +2.057
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +2.163
Fernando Alonso Alpine +2.211
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +2.717
Lance Stroll Aston Martin +2.963
Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +3.344
Esteban Ocon Alpine +3.872
Leave a Reply