SOCHI • Runaway Formula One series leader Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes emerged from a "horrible" red-flagged qualifying session at Sochi yesterday with pole position for today's Russian Grand Prix.
The six-time champion clocked a best lap in 1min 31.304sec to outpace Red Bull's Max Verstappen by half a second. His teammate Valtteri Bottas was third-quickest, with Sergio Perez of Racing Point sharing the second row.
Hamilton is bidding to claim his fifth win at the Sochi track where Mercedes have dominated, winning all six races since 2014. If he translates pole into victory, he will equal Michael Schumacher's career record of 91 Grand Prix wins.
Yesterday's second session was interrupted for 10 minutes after Sebastian Vettel crashed in his Ferrari. He was unhurt.
Replays showed that the German driver clipped a kerb at Turn Four and lost control as he smacked into the barriers. The red flags came out with Hamilton in a perilous 15th place with just over two minutes remaining.
He said: "It was one of the worst qualifying sessions. It was horrible - heart in your mouth. I wanted to stay out and do a banker but they said come in and get new tyres and then the red flag came out. It was a risk, we got through but I am starting on softs which is not good.
"Undoubtedly I am likely to get dragged past tomorrow, it will make it hard to win the race."
Once Q2 eventually resumed Hamilton managed to put in the fourth-quickest time to get through to the top 10 shoot-out.
The pole was the 96th of Hamilton's career but he ended the session under a stewards' enquiry, along with three other drivers, for not returning to the track in the correct manner at Turn Two.
No further action was taken after the investigation.
Verstappen, meanwhile, felt that Red Bull were "struggling a bit" to find the right balance with the car.
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RUSSIAN GP GRID
1ST ROW
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes
2 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull
2ND ROW
3 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes
4 Sergio Perez (Mex) Racing Point
3RD ROW
5 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Renault 6 Carlos Sainz (Esp) McLaren
4TH ROW
7 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Renault
8 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren
5TH ROW
9 Pierre Gasly (Fra) AlphaTauri
10 Alex Albon (Tha) Red Bull
SELECTED
11 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari
13 Lance Stroll (Can) Racing Point
15 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari
20 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Alfa Romeo
"Even this morning I was not entirely happy and in Q2 we were really trying to nail the balance but in Q3, the final runs, it was not bad. To be second on the grid, so very pleased for that," he said.
Today's race is due to be watched by the biggest sporting crowd in the Covid-19 era, with 30,000 fans allowed to attend.
F1 confirmed on Friday that there were seven coronavirus cases discovered within the sport after 3,256 tests from Sept 18-24.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX
Race day: Singtel TV Ch114 & StarHub Ch208, 6pm
