Team Summary:
With the FP3 session cancelled due to a heavy shower at the Sochi track the teams would face the prospect of going straight into qualifying. Despite the rain easing the track was still wet in places. The opening period would see only Alonso on the wet tyre the rest were on the intermediate. Both Williams drivers were running on the intermediate tyre for their first run. The first lap times would start to come in and Gasly would set a 1m:51.519 followed by Tsunoda and Raikkonen. Sainz was now second but Leclerc would go quickest with a 1m:50.292 but we would see Gasly again fastest with a 1m:49.218 followed by Sainz and Norris.

The times would drop rapidly with Hamilton now quickest with a 1m:46.937 followed by Bottas, Leclerc, Stroll, Gasly and Sainz sixth. The Williams pair were 14th and 15th. But with improved times this would change to see a Williams sixth and the other 15th. Perez would go quickest with a 1m:46.455 followed by Hamilton and Bottas. Gasly was in fourth followed by Alonso, Vettel, Nicholas, Leclerc, Norris and Ocon tenth. After their second runs on the intermediate tyres the Williams were ninth and 15th. At the front Bottas was again quickest with a 1m:46.396 only to see Hamilton go quickest with a 1m:45.992. Perez was now third followed by Vettel, Norris, Gasly, Alonso, Sainz, Ocon, and Nicholas tenth. The second Williams was 11th seeing both cars make it into Q2.

The second period would commence with the intermediate tyre again the tyre all drivers would be using. Gasly was quickest with a time of 1m:46.671 followed by Stroll and Ocon. But quickly Norris would move ahead with a 1m:46.254 only to see Hamilton move ahead with a 1m:46.096. A dry line was starting to appear at certain parts of the track. Bottas was now quickest with a 1m:45.506 but again Hamilton would move ahead with a 1m:45.406. Hamilton would improve with a 1m:45.129 to extend his lead over Bottas. Alonso was third followed by Norris, Perez, Ocon, Stroll, Ricciardo, George, and Sainz tenth.

With the start of the final period all ten cars were out very early including the remaining Williams. Hamilton would set a 1m:44.050 from Bottas, Stroll, Ocon and Perez fifth. Norris was now second and Ricciardo sixth. Geo9rge would pit without setting a time changing to a soft dry tyre. The order was now Hamilton from Norris, Bottas, Alonso, Perez, Stroll, Ocon, Ricciardo, Sainz and George without a time. Hamilton would make a mistake pitting seeing his car hitting the wall and he would require a new front wing. But they would wheel his car back into the garage to investigate his car for any damage. Everyone was now on the soft tyre for their second runs.

As drivers started to get the best using the soft tyre we would see Norris take pole with a 1m:41.993 followed by Sainz, George, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Alonso, Bottas, Stroll, Perez and Ocon tenth. A mixed qualifying for Williams with George third but Nicholas only 14th and having to take a penalty for a power unit change due to an issue detected by the team.

George Russell:
George was out running on the intermediate tyre. A 1m:57.636 would see George slowest behind his team-mate seeing him 15th with this becoming 16th. A 1m:50.603 and George would only improve to be 15th. George had pitted and come back out on a new set of intermediates and with a better lap of 1m:49.252 but it would see him only 15th. His next lap was a 1m:48.303 and this would see George in 11th as the period ended and this meant he was into the second period. With the start of the second period George was out early again on intermediates. He would set a 1m:53.626 which was slowest. But a 1m:47.735 would see him ninth. This would become 12th as he pitted after a four lap run. he would return currently 13th with four minutes remaining. He was using his final set of intermediates from his allocation as he set a 1m:46.991 to be 11th. A 1m:46.435 would see George 9th and into Q3. His Q3 would see him start on the intermediate tyre but would pit switching to a soft dry tyre as the track continued to dry. He would set a 1m:55.030 on his first lap on the dry tyre. His next lap was a 1m:49.975 seeing him not getting quicker remaining in tenth. But a 1m:42.983 and George would move into third, a great result.

Nicholas Latifi:
Nicholas would be first out for Williams running on the intermediate tyre. Nicholas would set a 1m:56.424 to be sixth. He would quickly drop to 14th. A 1m:50.364 would se Nicholas tenth. He would dropt o 12th but a 1m:48.252 would see Nicholas fourth. After a six lap run he would pit currently sixth. He would drop to eighth and then tenth but this would see him into the second period. Nicholas would be one of the last to come out for the second period. But he would pit after a single lap. He would finally return in the closing moments of the period. But he would pit again currently 14th and out of qualifying. It was reported that Nicholas would be taking an engine penalty and will start from the back of the grid, exactly where would depend on all the other penalties.