RUSSIAN GP – Lando Norris takes maiden pole in wet qualifying as Lewis Hamilton spins twice
Lando Norris has taken the first pole position of his F1 career in damp conditions after beating his former teammate Carlos Sainz by half a second in qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix. The McLaren driver took pole on his final run in Q3 before having to wait for Lewis Hamilton to see if he could respond.
For Norris, it’s redemption of losing a potential pole position at Spa in the wet by crashing, that would have given him his first win. But it was a brilliant final run that saw him pull half a second over Sainz, who admitted after the session he may have not been able to fully exploit the conditions.
The seven-time champion missed his second run in Q3, after crashing as he entered the pit lane for a tyre change to soft tyres, Hamilton had looked to be in control of the session until that point. But while he got a lap in he couldn’t improve leaving him fourth, over a second behind his teammate for next year George Russell, who has largely managed to deliver amazing results in these conditions.
Mercedes was able to repair the car, for Hamilton, leaving him with only one lap on the slick tyres in difficult drying conditions, while other drivers were able to build up to one final flying effort. Lacking grip, he then spun in the final sector and made contact with the wall, damaging his front wing. The tyres had gone past their best, not helped by his pit stop for repairs.
This meant he lost out to Norris, Sainz and Russell, at the end of the session when the track was at its best. Hamilton the big loser, when the top ten all took the gamble at the end of Q3 on soft tyres as conditions improved. Russell getting through to Q3 after taking a fourth set of inters.
Sainz, however, didn’t manage to improve on his final run after setting provisional pole, but hung on to second after Norris improved by half a second.
Norris had told reporters “It feels amazing. I don’t know what to say. Quite a manic session. You never think you’re going to get a pole until you get it. I’m extremely happy.”
Sainz adding “It was a very tricky qualifying right from the beginning, but right after Q2 I could see there was a chance the slick was going coming into play. We did a good job getting the slicks up to temperature.”
It was another brilliant qualifying for the Williams driver, Russell had only just scraped through to Q3 as others behind him failed to improve. But underlined his speed once again in the wet and over a single lap in qualifying.
Hamilton had lost time when he crashed into the pit wall, as all the drivers gambled on slick. He told reporters, “Twice in the wall… that’s very rare for me. I’m really sorry to all the team because that’s not what you expect from a champion.”
Hamilton who had topped FP1, FP2, Q1 and Q2, had looked like the man to beat and on course for his first pole since Barcelona says the crash “unfortunate,” but wouldn’t have made a difference. One of the issues Mercedes have had since this car was introduced last year is getting the tyres to warm up in the wet when they have switched to the soft tyres in changeable conditions.
On a morning when it looked as if conditions wouldn’t allow qualifying to take place, the session was trouble-free without red flags causing stoppage. But on a day when Mercedes needed to take advantage, with Max Verstappen starting last with an engine penalty they failed to capitalise on it.
Daniel Ricciardo put his McLaren fifth going two seconds off his teammate and almost six-hundredths of a second faster than the Alpine of Fernando Alonso. The two-time champion appearing not to be as close to the McLaren as he was on Friday in the dry, but was a second and a half faster than teammate Esteban Ocon.
Lance Stroll put hid Aston Martin eighth going ahead of Sergio Perez and Ocon rounding out the top ten. Red Bull would have liked to get Perez further up the order given Verstappen’s penalty, in an attempt to take as many points away from Hamilton.
Sebastian Vettel was the fastest of those knocked out in Q2, the four-time champion missing out on Q3 right at the end when Russell improved to make it into the final part of qualifying.
Pierre Gasly was also knocked out by the Williams driver, he starts twelfth, his joint worst qualifying of the season, after going just over a tenth faster than Alpha Tauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Also with grid penalties are Nicolas Latifi and Charles Leclerc, both made it through to Q2 but did not set a lap, meaning that the back rows look like Latifi, Leclerc and Verstappen. The Canadian having gone fastest of the trio in Q1, on a day when Williams certainly had the pace.
Kimi Raikkonen was the fastest of those knocked out in Q1, the Alfa Romeo driver going over three tenths faster than Mick Schumacher. Schumacher starting maybe to show the potential in his DNA splitting the two faster Alfa Romeo’s going over two seconds faster than Antonio Giovinazzi. Nikita Mazepin put his Haas nineteenth, the Russian over two and a half seconds behind the Italian.
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