2015 Russian Grand Prix - Qualifying Analysis: Hamilton's Turn 13 mistake costs him 2nd consecutive Sochi pole.

Nico Rosberg has taken pole position for the 2015 Russian Grand Prix after a brilliant lap saw him take the pole by 3 tenths from team mate Lewis Hamilton. After the initial laps were set Nico was on top, but when Lewis went out on his second run he ran wide at turn 13 and conceded the pole. The session was held in the dry throughout and it saw many teams scrambling for the most track time possible after the oil leak in Practice 1, rain in Practice 2 and Carlos Sainz's severe accident in Practice 3.

Pole sitter: Nico Rosberg of Mercedes.

The first session saw Mercedes in 1st and 2nd and the only team not to equip the super soft rubber. Carlos Sainz did not take part in the session as he was still recovering in hospital from his crash in FP3. Yellow flags were out early in the session as Pastor Maldonado lazily spun his Lotus on the out lap. Early pace was being set by Nico Rosberg as he matched the 2014 pole time with a 1:38.556. The only vibe to take away from Q1 is that the Mercedes looked strong. The car looked planted in the corners and fast down the straights as they kept a comfortable gap to Ferrari in 3rd and 4th. With Q1 ending it saw Fernando Alonso, Marcus Ericsson, Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi all knocked out (Carlos Sainz was the 5th person not to make Q2 as he did not participate). McLaren looked much stronger than Sauber throughout, but Felipe Nasr drove exceptionally to push McLaren's Fernando Alonso into the drop zone. Every team but Manor-Marussia had 1 car into Q2.

Force India had a very comfortbale qualifying to take 6th and 7th on the grid.

Q2 was a quiet session with no yellow or red flags throughout. It started with Lewis Hamilton on top with a time 6 tenths faster than Nico Rosberg. But Rosberg responded almost immediately to go 1 tenth faster than Hamilton, meaning Nico Rosberg was the favorite for pole heading into Q3. Further down the field Felipe Massa made mistakes on his critical lap which saw him manage a very disappointing 15th place. Daniil Kvyat, Felipe Nasr, Jenson Button, Pastor Maldonado and Felipe Massa were all knocked out and will start from 11th to 15th respectively. As mentioned earlier Massa was the big disappointment of the lot, but Daniil Kvyat would have been feeling just as bad as he narrowly missed out on a Q3 slot in front of his home crowd. Meanwhile Jenson Button was extremely happy with his unexpected 13th place for McLaren. Mercedes, Ferrari and Force India were the only teams to have both cars into Q3.

Felipe Massa, who was knocked out in Q2.

Into the top 10 shootout, and most people were out straight away as the tires were proving hard to get up to temperature. So hard that all drivers took an out lap, warm up lap and then hot lap. When the first hot laps were set, Nico Rosberg led the field from Lewis Hamilton on genuine pace. Sebastian Vettel was faster than team mate Raikkonen but only found himself in 4th as Valtteri Bottas stormed to a provisional 3rd place grid slot. As the final runs began, Nico Rosberg didn't improve on his time, leaving the door wide open for Lewis Hamilton to take pole. But for the first time this season Lewis Hamilton choked on a Saturday as he ran wide through Turn 13 effectively ending his lap. He pulled into the pits and conceded to give Nico the pole. Next to cross the line was the Bottas, Vettel and Raikkonen, the two Ferrari drivers were really threatning Bottas to improve his current 3rd place time or risk dropping behind them. Bottas responded calmly and beautifully to improve enough to get ahead of Ferrari and start from 3rd. Meanwhile Vettel led Raikkonen in the team mate battle between Ferrari in 4th and 5th. Next on the grid were the very quiet achievements of Force India, who managed both drivers into Q3 and really proved to be the best of the rest behind the top 3 of Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams. Nico Hulkenberg led Sergio Perez and they will be hoping for a strong race to close the gap to Red Bull in the constructors. Grosjean followed in his Lotus with the lone Toro Rosso of Max Verstappen in 9th. The Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top 10 as the Renault engine continues to struggle on Russia's demanding long straights.

Williams driver Valtteri Bottas who managed an exceptional 3rd place grid slot.

Tomorrows Grid will look like this after penalties have been applied:

1) Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
2) Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
3) Valtteri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes
4) Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
5) Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
6) Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes
7) Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
8) Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Mercedes
9) Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso-Renault
10) Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-Renault
11) Daniil Kvyat - Red Bull Racing-Renault
12) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
13) Jenson Button - McLaren-Honda
14) Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Mercedes
15) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
16) Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
17) Will Stevens - Manor-Ferrari
18) Roberto Merhi - Manor-Ferrari
19) Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso-Renault
20) Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda (35 Place Grid Penalty)

Overall the main notes to take out of qualifying looking toward the race. 1) Mercedes look very strong, there car looks like it was built for this circuit, but can they convert the strong 1 lap pace into long run pace as its believed Russia will be an "easy" one stop. 2) Ferrari are not second. Valtteri Bottas is 2nd, apart from Massa's troubles, Bottas looked faster than Ferrari throughout. Either Raikkonen or Vettel will have to work hard to get ahead of him for a podium. 3) Don't forget about Force India. They look very strong and most people are forgetting about the fact they breezed into Q3 without any worries. Out of all Q3 sessions that they have had both cars in this certainly looked the strongest and the most comfortable for them.

All will be revealed at lights out in just under 3 hours with Nico Rosberg leading from the pole.

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Japanese Grand Prix 2015 - Practice 1 Analysis: Wet conditions interrupt running in Suzuka.

The very wet Friday Practice 1 session has finished and to be 100% honest you can't gain anything from the very little running. Only 12 times were set as 8 cars choose not to run in the conditions.

Fans at Suzuka.

The session was mainly run in the full wet tires and we had to wait 55 minutes before we saw the first timed laps from Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso's. These times were set with full wet conditions and were round the 1:51s. The first person to run the inters was Valtteri Bottas, but it proved to early as he had a big moment on the exit of Turn 2 and found himself 5 seconds off Verstappen's pace.

As more times were set towards the end of the session, more drivers began to struggle in the conditions that were balanced between full wets and inters. Most notably Felipe Massa who was complaining of understeer as he struggled to get his Williams through the first sector. Felipe Nasr also had a moment at Spoon curve as he went wide and nearly found himself in the gravel. Kimi Raikkonen also had a moment right as the chequered flag fell when he went wide at Turn 1.

Sebastian Vettel

There hasn't been anything to learn in this session in terms of Mercedes and Ferrari as wet conditions can't show us true pace. Ferrari appear confident, whilst Mercedes seems very worried as they believe that Ferrari now have a power unit on par with the Mercedes. The rain is set to continue through Friday Practice 2 and we will likely see a very rushed and very interesting Saturday Practice 3.
There wasn't much on track action in this session but there was plenty to talk about off the track. Lotus continue with financial troubles, there freight for this weekend arrived late and they didn't do any running in Practice 1 supposedly because they can't afford a crash. Red Bull are also still having problems for there 2016 campaign. The team is likely to be Ferrari powered but many reports are coming out saying the team won't be Red Bull sponsored next year. Another bit of news from the paddock is the announcement that on Tuesday Haas F1 will announce there 2015 race drivers. Many drivers are still in the running for the two seats from Esteban Gutierrez, Jean-Eric Vergne and even the possibility of Romain Grosjean.

Marcus Ericsson.

Overall the strongest looking car from this practice session was definitely the Toro Rosso as Carlos Sainz topped the session with Max Verstappen in 6th, Obviously these times are highly irrelevant but a definite pattern throughout the season is that the Toro Rosso is a very strong car in wet conditions.

Overall the session finished like this:

1) Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso-Renault
2) Daniil Kvyat - Red Bull Racing-Renault
3) Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
4) Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
5) Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
6) Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso-Renault
7) Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
8) Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
9) Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
10) Valtteri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes
11) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
12) Jenson Button - McLaren-Honda

Drivers who didn't set times:

Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-Renault
Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes
Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Mercedes
Jolyon Palmer - Lotus-Mercedes
Will Stevens - Manor-Ferrari
Alexander Rossi - Manor-Ferrari
Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda

The second Friday Practice session is set to get underway in just under 2 hours. Heavy rain continues to pelt the Suzuka circuit and it looks as though it will be a very similar session to this one. Saturday Practice will be the most crucial session this weekend if the teams can't have normal running on the Friday.

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Spanish Grand Prix - Qualifying analysis

Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix has been completed and it certainly had a different nature to it then the first four races of the season. As Catalunya being a naturally difficult circuit to balance the car around, it would be tough for everyone.

Carlos Sainz Jr driving for Toro Rosso.

As we headed into Q1 we saw the likes of Force India and McLaren straight onto the medium tires as well as Kimi Raikkonen later on in the session. The back row of the grid is again locked out by the two Marussia cars. It was a good day for Will Stevens as he managed to out qualify his team mate Roberto Merhi again, and they line up 19th and 20th. A disappointing session for Force India as Perez lines up 18th and Hulkenberg 17th. Hulkenberg went out earlier in the session, and didn't have time for another run towards the end, compromising him. It's the first time Force India have had both cars out in Q1 since Abu Dhabi 2009. The last spot in Q1 went to the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson.

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull looks on.

Q2 began and the likes of both McLaren's were through, leapfrogging there main rivals Force India. As the session ended 15th spot was occupied by the other Sauber of Felipe Nasr. Disappointing for the team, with both cars lower than expected and meaning that McLaren had jumped them as well. They had wound up 14th and 13th with Fernando Alonso just getting ahead of his team mate by just under a tenth. The last two spots went to the Lotus drivers with Romain Grosjean again being ahead of his team mate Maldonado. Lotus were fairly happy considering a very bumpy and stressful weekend so far.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams, starting from 4th means he is in real contention for some serious points.

Q3 now rolled around, and it was again between Rosberg and Hamilton. There were also both Ferrari's, Toro Rosso's, Red Bull's and Williams all fighting for the top spot. As the flag dropped it was Daniel Ricciardo who found himself in 10th place, which for me was quite surprising. A disappointing session for Felipe Massa found him in 9th. Perhaps Kvyat going to Red Bull might be coming right now, as he drove brilliantly to get an 8th place grid slot, out performing his team mate in the process. Next in 7th after extremely disappointing qualifying, we find the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, I hope he can put a stunning drive on Sunday and recover some points. Another blistering session from the Toro Rosso team as Carlos Sainz out drove his team mate Verstappen for 5th and 6th places, both ahead of the sister team, Red Bull. 4th place went to Valtteri Bottas who has been a little bit quiet so far, but he drove brilliantly, and finished ahead of his team mate Massa. 3rd was the place of Sebastian Vettel and his Ferrari, as he had an average day at the office. Now this is where the shocks come, finally an answer to Hamilton's reign, Nico Rosberg put in blistering lap times to take Pole Position over his team mate by a full three tenths. Finally some fight from Nico is great to see. Mercedes achieved their third 1-2 start at Catalunya in a row.

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes, the pole sitter

It was a throughly enjoyable session and finally great to see Nico putting a true fight to Hamilton, I cannot wait for race day!