Fifth-straight Mercedes front-row lockout at 2014 Russian Grand Prix qualifying
Ryan Joseph Ramos October 11, 2014With Lewis Hamilton getting his 38th career pole position and Nico Rosberg taking P2 at the qualifying session for the 2014 Russian Grand Prix, Mercedes AMG Petronas has scored its fifth-straight front-row lockout. The pole is also the team’s 15th out of the 16 races so far this season.
Running on a new track, both drivers expressed delight in their runs in practice as they got accustomed to the Sochi circuit. Qualifying proved to be harder for them, as they needed to adapt to different things especially given the smooth surface on the new track.
“It’s an amazing feeling to come to this beautiful place and to race on this track,” said Hamilton. “It’s fun to drive.”
Rosberg noted that the race should be exciting because of the ‘new’ and ‘unique’ track. “There will be some opportunities to overtake on the straights and I am sure we will see plenty of action on track.”
Mercedes was again the fastest on the track, this time at the Sochi Autodrom in Russia. It wasn’t only the Mercedes of Hamilton and Rosberg, though; Mercedes power took the top four qualifying places for the fifth time this season as Valtteri Bottas of Williams and Jenson Button of McLaren took P3 and P4, respectively.
Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat qualified in P5, with the other McLaren of Kevin Magnussen in sixth and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull in seventh. The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen took P8 and P9, respectively, while the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne took the last spot in the top ten.
Jules Bianchi, who suffered head injuries after crashing into a recovery tractor at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, was supposed to be replaced by Marussia’s test driver Alexander Rossi, but the team opted not to enter a replacement as a show of respect to their injured driver. This means there will only be 21 cars on the grid for the race. We still hope Jules Bianchi recovers soon.
