Brendan Lines September 27 2020

Lewis Hamilton scored his 96th career pole position despite a red flag threatening his elimination in Q2 and a stewards inquiry, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen split the Mercedes cars taking P2 from Valtteri Bottas in P3.

Hamilton’s chances looked dashed when Saturday’s Q3 was red-flagged with just 2 minutes 15 left, as Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari left the track at Turn 4 smashing into the barriers thwarting Hamilton’s current lap, the Brit unable to improve on P15, drivers Lance Stroll, Alex Albon, Charles Leclerc and George Russell were also left compromised at the stoppage.

Ferrari’s day could not get any worse with Vettel dropping out, teammate Charles Leclerc had to evade the debris from Vettel’s stricken Ferrari, Leclerc then had to chew through a set of Soft tyres to improve, but couldn’t get out of Q2.

When the session was green-lit it was a frantic race for the drivers at risk of elimination to make Q2’s cut-off time, Hamilton made it with just a 1.25 seconds to go, his Q2 lap was enough for P4.

The Brit lit up the middle sector around the Sochi Autodrom to post a Q3 lap of 1:31.304 to take pole, Hamilton was later called to the stewards along with Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen and Nicholas Latifi for not following ‘race directives’ rejoining the track at Turn 2 after running slightly wide, but no penalty was given to any drivers.

Sky Sports published a statement from FIA stewards that read:

“The driver accepted that he had not followed the instructions and further he accepted that in a race there would be a penalty. The Stewards determined that there was no advantage, as the relevant lap time was deleted according to Doc 27.“

The Stewards also said its decision was consistent with other previous decisions from the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix and the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix.

Hamilton now takes his eighth pole of the 2020 F1 season and second at the Russian GP.

“That was one of the toughest Qualifying sessions I can remember, proper heart in your mouth the whole way. But I feel super grateful for everyone keeping their cool as it could have been a lot, lot worse,” Hamilton said after qualifying.

“Q2 was hugely challenging, my first attempt was taken away for going over the track limits at the final corner.

“The team brought me in for refuelling and to fit new tyres but when I was on my second lap, the red flag came out.

“After that, it was very close to still get that final lap in – I overtook a few cars in the last sector but then lost time behind a Renault.

“I just heard Bono say ‘go, go, go’, so I was gunning it to get across the line. There was so much going on and I had to just calm down and find my centre.”

The big surprise was Max Verstappen who pulled out a blinding lap of 1:31.867 to pip Bottas by a tenth of second for P2, Verstappen has made himself the cat amongst the pigeons in the prime position to slipstream Hamilton through the opening corners of the race.

“P2 was very unexpected and I don’t say this often but I think this was one of my best ever qualifying laps and it felt really good,” Verstappen said.

“I was struggling a bit in Q1 and Q2 with the balance of the car and we made some small improvements to stabilise everything and in Q3, especially on the second run, they worked and the lap was good.

“Of course we want to fight for pole and wins but this year it is not possible all the time, so then to be able to split the two Mercedes cars is very satisfying and I’m happy to be on the front row here. 

“I’m starting on the dirty side of the grid which does make a difference with the initial launch but I’m also on the medium tyre which is the best way for us.

“If we can have a decent start, the tow effect is very big so who knows what can happen into Turn Two.”

Sergio Perez weaved some final lap magic to put his Racing Point on to P4 of the grid, his final luge was enough to nose Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo by five hundredths. Ricciardo however now equals his best qualifying result at Sochi since 2017 taking P5.

Carlos Sainz was the fastest of the McLaren cars in P6 his lap of 1:32.550s was enough to beat Renault’s Esteban Ocon by just under a tenth in P7, the Renault driver sandwiched between the McLarens as Lando Norris makes up P8.

Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly bounced back from some disappointing pace in the practice sessions to secure P9, while Alex Albon struggled for pace in his final run, the Thai driver now has it all ahead of him starting from P10.

The Russian Grand Prix begins 10:40pm ACST tonight.

Qualifying full results:

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:32.983	1:32.835	1:31.304	19
2	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:33.630	1:33.157	1:31.867	21
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:32.656	1:32.405	1:31.956	19
4	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:33.704	1:33.038	1:32.317	15
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:33.650	1:32.218	1:32.364	15
6	55	Carlos Sainz	McLaren Renault	1:33.967	1:32.757	1:32.550	15
7	31	Esteban Ocon	Renault	1:33.557	1:33.196	1:32.624	20
8	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Renault	1:33.804	1:33.081	1:32.847	19
9	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri Honda	1:33.734	1:33.139	1:33.000	21
10	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:33.919	1:33.153	1:33.008	19
11	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:34.071	1:33.239		10
12	26	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri Honda	1:33.511	1:33.249		16
13	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:33.852	1:33.364		11
14	63	George Russell	Williams Mercedes	1:34.020	1:33.583		11
15	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:34.134	1:33.609		11
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:34.592			7
17	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:34.594			6
18	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:34.681			8
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Mercedes	1:35.066			5
20	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:35.267			5

Q1 107% time – 1:39.141