SOCHI, Russia — Lando Norris celebrated
his maiden Formula One pole and gave his McLaren team their first since 2012 in
a stunning outcome to Saturday's qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix.
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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.
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 Briton, fresh from his team's first one-two in more
than a decade at the Italian Grand Prix.
"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 has 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 qualifying,"
the Dutch driver tweeted.
"Quite an interesting qualifying
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 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 sorry for all the team because that's not what you expect from a
champion.
"But it is what it is and
I'll do my best tomorrow to try and rectify it," he told Sky.
In fifth spot for Sunday's race is
Norris's teammate, Monza winner Daniel Ricciardo with the Alpine of Fernando
Alonso for company on the third row.
Bottas and Aston Martin's Lance
Stroll come next with Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull and Esteban Ocon of
Alpine completing 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.
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