Lewis Hamilton’s ill-luck still refuses to turn. For the third time in four grands prix his chances of victory seem to have evaporated before a wheel has turned in anger, compromised by a mechanical failure. As in China two weeks ago, so in Russia this time, his engine losing power after a problem with its energy recovery system.
On this occasion, it happened after he had qualified for the top-10 run-off, so he will start from 10th place on the grid rather than at the back, as in Shanghai. But it has left the way clear for his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg to reel off another comfortable victory — which would be his seventh in succession.
Hamilton admitted that he feels helpless. “The goal is moving further into the distance and there is nothing I can do,” he said. “There is a long way to go. It is another big challenge and the challenge is becoming great. Even when it seems like it’s the darkest of days, there is always some light there. That will power me forward tomorrow.”
Without the competition of his teammate in a car that’s comfortably faster here than the Ferrari, Rosberg scored a comfortable pole position. He begins today’s race already 36 points clear of Hamilton in the championship and with that advantage likely to be further stretched by the time the chequered flag falls in Sochi. Hamilton’s task in winning a third consecutive championship becomes ever more difficult with each passing race.
Rosberg was keen to play down the significance of all this. “We’re only three-and-a-half races through a 21-race championship,” he said after qualifying. “I can’t say that I’m thinking about that or what Lewis’ problems were. I’m just focusing on myself. Lewis’ issues obviously make my job a bit easier in the race, but there’s still a long way to go. The car felt really awesome today, the balance was just fantastic.
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“We made a small change in Q2 with the front wing to reduce a bit of understeer that was costing me a little bit of time, and after that it felt amazing. This was the final part of the team’s work in bringing it all together because on Friday it was quite tricky. They’ve done an amazing job.”
Hamilton was crestfallen. “The car was fine in the first two parts of qualifying. Then at the end of Q2 I did an extra feeler lap and felt the same loss of power that I had experienced in China.” He has also suffered a gearbox failure and a throttle software problem in earlier events this year.
Hamilton wasn’t the only front-runner to experience gremlins. Sebastian Vettel needed a replacement gearbox on his Ferrari after his car stopped during Friday practice. This entails a five-place grid penalty, dropping him from second to seventh. “We’ve been pushing very hard to catch up [with Mercedes] on our developments and this can happen, just a normal part of racing,” he shrugged. “Actually I don’t think it’s too disastrous it happening at this track because overtaking is possible here. I’m confident we can pass most of the cars the penalty has dropped us behind.”
Ferrari knew of the gearbox penalty going into qualifying and in such circumstances they were relying heavily upon Kimi Raikkonen being able to capitalise on Hamilton’s problems to put a Ferrari on the front row — but he failed to achieve it, after locking up into the final corner on his crucial last lap. This allowed the Williams of Valtteri Bottas to record the third-fastest time and he was promoted to the front row because of Vettel’s penalty. The Finns Raikkonen and Bottas clashed here on the final lap last year (and collided again in Mexico later in the season), adding a certain edge to their rivalry in today’s event around the fast, sweeping track between the concrete walls.
“It’s quite satisfying to have edged the Ferrari out,” Bottas said, before attributing some of the Williams’ improved form to a new short nose being raced for the first time. “The car has some new parts on here that are working really well. It has improved the feel of the car. It’s true that our competitiveness here is partly because of the nature of the track suiting our car in particular, but I also believe we have improved the car too; it’s both things.”
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Also running with the new nose, Bottas’ teammate Felipe Massa will start the race alongside Raikkonen on the second row. His lap was a significant half-second adrift of Bottas and only barely faster than Daniel Ricciardo, whose Red Bull is compromised here by the Renault engine’s power shortfall. There’s a lot of confidence from both Renault Sport and Red Bull that this state of affairs will be changing with a powerful engine upgrade set for the Canadian Grand Prix. Utilising the latest sophisticated “turbulent jet ignition” technology already featured on the Mercedes and Ferrari engines, Ricciardo said earlier in the weekend that he fully expects to be fighting it out on equal terms with them once it’s ready.
A horsepower shortfall also continues to stymie McLaren, where Jenson Button out-qualified his McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso. They start 12th and 14th respectively. Although gains are expected from the Honda motor later in the season, Button has admitted that the big step probably won’t be until next year. “I think with the way the engine is, yes, it’s difficult to extract the power that we feel we need. And that’s not me saying that, that’s Honda and that’s why the makeover for next year. They’ve made some big steps this year with the engine but I think to make the big step to the top teams is very difficult [without a redesign].”
Whether Button will be racing for the team next year is far from certain, with his current contract running only to the end of this season.
ON TV TODAY
Russian Grand Prix
Sky Sports 1, 1pm