Hamilton's pole position, Vettel's wrecked car and Kvyat's 12th place: how was the qualification of the Russian Grand Prix in Formula 1

Shvartsman's failure and hope for Kvyat

Saturday at Sochi Autodrom began with some unpleasant news for Russian fans.

Before the third free practice session, the main Formula 2 race took place.

Robert Schwartzman, who started from the seventh position, had an urgent need to impose a fight on his team-mate and series leader Mick Schumacher in order to maintain the chances of winning the title.

However, for the young Russian driver everything went extremely badly.

He started slowly, and at the pit stop the mechanics changed the wheel for a long time, although a little earlier, without a hitch, they updated the tires for Schumacher Jr.

Schwartzman rolled away from the leadership group and got stuck in traffic.

It was possible to save the weekend if he finished tenth and got pole position for Sunday's sprint, but in the end, the Prema driver was only 11th.

If before the Russian Grand Prix Schwartzman remained a contender for victory in the season and claimed to get into Formula 1, now Schumacher is practically guaranteed an increase.

Only Daniil Kvyat could cheer up the spectators gathered in the stands.

On the eve, he optimistically stated that he would be ready to fight in qualifying for getting into the top ten, which is not a frequent event for the AlphaTauri team.

The rider confirmed his words in Saturday's training session.

By the time the Formula 1 cars left, the Sochi track still did not have sufficient grip - the used rubber was enough for only a few braking zones.

Although there were no more serious accidents as the day before, some pilots still flew to the side of the road.

The same fate befell Kvyat's partner Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas in Mercedes, and Romain Grosjean from Haas.

All three avoided serious consequences.

For 40 minutes of the session, the leadership was held by Valtteri Bottas, who won both training sessions on Friday.

But when the pilots began to simulate qualifications, Lewis Hamilton took the lead.

The leader of the championship surpassed his team-mate by 0.776 seconds, having issued a very significant application for pole position.

Bottas could not answer with anything and was forced to be content with the second place, to which a whole group of pilots crept up.

The best among them was Carlos Sainz at McLaren.

Kvyat showed the ninth time.

Vettel crash and Hamilton rescue

By the beginning of qualification, the sky over Sochi was covered with clouds, the air temperature dropped, but the track remained the same hot.

The conditions changed in comparison with the third training session, and it became especially difficult for the pilots to pass the second turn, for the short cut of which the marshals canceled the time for the whole lap.

Both pilots with no serious ambition and Lewis Hamilton fell into this trap.

He had to drive the fastest lap twice to end up losing three tenths of a second to Bottas.

In the second wave, Kvyat unexpectedly became the best after the Mercedes pilots - thanks to the fastest third sector, he rose to third place.

The exit to the second part of qualification turned out to be very confident, which could not be said about the Ferrari drivers - Charles Leclair and Sebastian Vettel advanced from the last necessary positions for this.

After a short pause, Hamilton drove onto the track on medium-hard tires and immediately performed a small miracle.

He bypassed Bottas and all the other pilots for almost a second, who chose softer rubber.

However, the leader of the championship did not avoid a mistake and cut off the 18th turn, for which his time was again canceled.

Meanwhile, Daniel Riccardo took the lead in Renault, who showed his speed in free sessions the day before.

Meanwhile, there were only three tenths of a second between the third and 12th positions, and Hamilton had not yet said his word.

And at that moment, when many have already taken acceleration and began to fight with the stopwatch, Vettel crashed his car.

The second segment had to be stopped 2 minutes 15 seconds before its end.

There was a possibility that someone simply did not have enough time for a second attempt, and Hamilton, too, could be left without it.

After the restart, the Mercedes driver drove onto the track in soft tires, which he wanted to keep for the race, cut off the second turn and slowed down a little before the finish, when time was running out.

But he still dived under the checkered flag, drove the fastest lap and took the saving fourth place.

Alexander Albon was also able to climb into the top ten at Red Bull, which meant that Kvyat fell back to 12th place, who was unable to improve his time.

On Sunday he will start from row six with Charles Leclair.

For pole position, Hamilton and Bottas fought with each other.

But there was no serious struggle in the third qualifying segment - the Briton immediately drove a circle 0.8 seconds faster.

In the second attempt, he improved his time, breaking the absolute record of Sochi Autodrom.

Bottas not only did not answer, but also let Max Verstappen go ahead, who will now have a chance to get the first podium for Red Bull in Sochi.

Sergio Perez from Racing Point will also be in the second row of the starting field.