Daniel Ricciardo came under the microscope for a dodgy moment in qualifying before his teammate shocked everyone with a career-first.
Lando Norris celebrated his maiden Formula One pole and gave his McLaren team their first since 2012 in a stunning outcome to qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix.
Norris is joined on the front row by the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, his former teammate, with Lewis Hamilton starting on the second row in his latest attempt at reaching 100 wins.
Kayo is your ticket to the best local and international sport streaming Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial >
Norris’ teammate Daniel Ricciardo, fresh from winning the Italian Grand Prix, qualified fifth fastest but was given a reprimand by stewards for impeding Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in Q1.
They noted the Aussie took evasive action when he eventually noticed Stroll behind him on a wet day with poor visibility, so he escaped without a full-blown penalty, but McLaren still copped an official warning.
“Congrats to Lando on his first pole, and to the team — to keep the momentum of Monza is really cool. So, everyone is really upbeat,” Ricciardo said.
“From a position point of view, I’m OK with fifth. I think it obviously puts us in good shape for tomorrow. Those conditions today were so hit and miss, you could gain or lose time so easily. There were certainly a few corners that bit me, but it’s all good. We learn from it.”
Hamilton was looking good for pole after topping the timesheets in Q1 and Q2, but he then suffered late drama with three minutes left of Q3 when he hit the pit wall requiring a hastily fitted new front wing to his damaged Mercedes.
A spin on his re-emergence out onto the circuit on slick tyres left the door open for 21-year-old Norris to steal the show at Sochi with a flying last lap of 1min 41.993sec.
“Oh boy. It feels amazing. Manic session,” beamed the Brit, fresh from his team’s first one-two finish in over a decade at Monza.
“We made the decision to go slicks, you never think you will get pole until you get it,” he added.
The refreshingly different complexion of the top of the grid was completed by George Russell of Williams.
He posted the third quickest time to start alongside seven-time world champion Hamilton, his teammate when he replaces Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes next season.
“It is crazy. Second time in the top three in three or four events, the team have done an amazing job,” said the 22-year-old referring to a brilliant qualifying session at Spa to gain his first podium in the rain-ruined Belgian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen, who leads Hamilton by five points ahead of this 15th round of the season, starts from the back of the grid due to an engine change penalty on his Red Bull.
“As I will be starting from the back of the grid anyway, we decided to take no risks and to skip quali,” the Dutch driver tweeted.
“Quite an interesting quali result! It’s full focus on the race, in which I’ll try to fight my way forward and hopefully have some fun.”
Hamilton, meanwhile, will be counting on exploiting Verstappen’s penalty to the fullest at the circuit on the shores of the Black Sea where he has already won four times with Mercedes undefeated since the race first appeared on the calendar in 2014.
Stuck on 99 wins since Silverstone on July 18 the seven-time world champion will hope his car’s race pace will see him finally become F1’s first century man.
“I think with Lewis we can still win this race,” said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.
Hamilton was upset with what he readily acknowledged was “a mistake from myself” when hitting the wall.
“Ultimately, incredibly disappointed in myself. Until then I was in a groove, I was really in the zone and I’m really sorry for all the team that are here and back at the factory because that’s not what you expect from a champion,” he said.
“But it is what it is and I’ll do my best tomorrow to try and rectify it.”
Bottas and Stroll will start on the fourth row of the grid as Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull and Esteban Ocon of Alpine complete the top 10.
Qualifying got underway as scheduled after a dramatic improvement in conditions following torrential rain which washed out the morning’s third and final practice.
The deluge left the circuit in the Olympic Park under water, but thankfully the rain relented to allow a qualifying session that Norris won’t forget in a hurry to go ahead.
Russian Grand Prix qualifying results: Top 10
1) Lando Norris, McLaren
2) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
3) George Russell, Williams
4) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
5) Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren
6) Fernando Alonso, Alpine
7) Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
8) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
9) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
10) Esteban Ocon, Alpine
With AFP
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
