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Uralkali Haas F1 team drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin qualified 17th and 19th respectively for the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday, 15th round of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship at Sochi Autodrom – but the duo will start from 15th and 17th on the grid after Charles Leclerc (Scuderia Ferrari) and Nicholas Latifi (Williams), qualified in the lead, will take grid penalties and start from behind with Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) – who did not succeed to set a time in Q1 because he too exercises a grid penalty.
Torrential rains resulted in the cancellation of Saturday’s final practice session, but more favorable weather above meant qualifying began at the scheduled time of 3:00 p.m. local time. Mazepin and Schumacher opted for slightly different strategies around the wet but slowly drying track in the first quarter. Mazepin ran deeper on his first set of Pirelli Cinturato Green intermediate tires, but was limited to two timed laps on his second train when conditions improved. The Russian clocked a fastest lap in 1: 53.764 to finish 19th overall. Schumacher had more time to fold in his second heat series, the German then clocked a lap of 1: 49.830 to secure 17th place on the timesheet.
Nikita Mazepin: “Overall the session went well. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do because I felt the tires needed a lot of laps compared to what I was going to do. I felt at Spa. I finally found the right balance, set the steering to the right wheel settings, got the temperatures in the window to be comfortable, made a decent lap, and then we boxed. was really struggling there. This lap I felt the track was not dry enough to get the tires on but the position is not really different than it could have been, but it was pretty hard to ride. We don’t know what the weather is going to do but I think we’re ready for wet and dry conditions so we’ll just have to see what happens. “
Mick Schumacher: “Maybe I was hoping for a secret appearance in Q2, that would have been great. The round went well – I think there might have been a few mistakes – maybe two or three tenths, but that wouldn’t have been enough to continue in Q2 but at least we’re close. A little frustrated but very happy on the other side and I think we did a great job as a team. are the best conditions honestly. cold water and basically if you are the quickest to find your way on the track you will be the fastest on the track. I’ve always enjoyed that even in the past and hope we will have rain tomorrow.
Guenther Steiner: “It’s actually good that we finally made it through qualifying today so we executed our program and tomorrow morning we can focus on the race. I think qualifying was enough – I wouldn’t say difficult – it was sort of simple. inters, we just tried to do our best and make the most of it. “
Discover our Saturday gallery in Sochi, here.
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