PERKELE!! Bottas boots it in the final corner

It could have been the feel good upset of the season. Valterri Bottas came really close to ruining Lewis Hamilton's day on his final Q3 run.
It seems that, while you can take the Finn out of Finland you can't entirely take the Rally out if Finns: Valterri carried too much speed into the final corner which resulted in a lurid slide and a missed opportunity.

Oh well.

The Sochi track may be a featureless gully in the style of Valencia but it seems to be quite the challenge for the drivers. Very technical yet very fast too. It's wide and with little grip and tire degradation. Hopefully there won't be too much tire rubber turning the track into the usual one lane bobsled run.

Hamilton hammered another, perhaps the final,  nail in Rosberg's championship hopes.

Enjoy his great lap for pole,

2014 FORMULA 1 RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:38.759	1:38.338	1:38.513	18
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:39.076	1:38.606	1:38.713	18
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:39.125	1:38.971	1:38.920	23
4	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:39.560	1:39.381	1:39.121	22
5	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:40.074	1:39.296	1:39.277	27
6	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:39.735	1:39.022	1:39.629	21
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:40.519	1:39.666	1:39.635	21
8	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:40.255	1:39.786	1:39.709	25
9	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:40.098	1:39.838	1:39.771	26
10	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:40.354	1:39.929	1:40.020	27
11	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:40.382	1:40.052		13
12	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:40.273	1:40.058		16
13	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:40.723	1:40.163		13
14	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:41.159	1:40.536		18
15	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:40.766	1:40.984		18
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:42.526	1:41.397		18
17	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:42.648			9
18	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:43.064			8
19	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:43.166			9
20	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:43.205			5
21	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:43.649			10
		Q1 107% Time		1:45.672

Note - Hulkenberg, Magnussen, Chilton drop 5 places for unscheduled gearbox changes. Maldonado drops 5 - remainder of 10-place penalty for engine change at last round