Qualifying took place in dry and warm conditions in Sochi, with the final session getting away with 26 degrees ambient and 40 on track. Ferrari was the only team to use the supersoft in qualifying, with both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen getting through to Q2 with the red tyre. From then on, only the purple ultrasoft was used, with Ferrari claiming first and second on the grid, having also gone quickest with Vettel in the similar conditions of FP3 this morning.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“The key to qualifying was the preparation of the tyres on the warm-up lap, with some drivers choosing one, and others preferring two, in order to extract the maximum performance. On the final run, Vettel did two warm-up laps, while Raikkonen chose one. This precise tyre management was a highlight of an exciting and closely-fought session with some very close margins at the finish. Apart from that, it was a straightforward qualifying session today, with the tyres behaving exactly as we expected. As we’ve seen from the past the surface remains quite slippery here, despite some natural ageing of the asphalt.”

HOW THE TYRES BEHAVED TODAY
SOFT - Not used today; might form part of an alternative one-stop strategy tomorrow
SUPERSOFT - Only used by Ferrari in Q1. Some drivers out of top 10 may start the race on them
ULTRASOFT - The key qualifying tyre, around a second faster than supersoft.