#RussianGP Qualifying: @LandoNorris pips @Carlossainz55 to clinch maiden pole. #F1

McLaren’s Lando Norris pipped Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to claim his maiden pole position in a wild Qualifying session at the Russian GP with Williams Racing’s George Russell completing the top three as the wet-to-dry conditions caught out Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton.

After Free Practice 3 was cancelled due to heavy rain in the morning in Sochi, qualifying was able to take place as the conditions eased ahead of the session’s scheduled start time.

In the first two stages, which Hamilton topped, the circuit remained wet for the green-branded intermediate rubber to be used throughout, but a dry line just about appeared when Q3 began.

The top ten shootout runners emerged initially on the intermediates, with Hamilton setting the quickest time on that tyre with a 1:44.050 and Norris slotting behind his fellow British-compatriot just as the drivers finished their first flyers.

Russell and WIlliams were the first to put on the C5 red side-walled soft slick compounds, but did not post times good enough to threaten those set on the intermediates until right at the end of the final qualifying stage.

At this point, all the top ten runners swapped the inters for softs as well, but when Mercedes called Hamilton in – who was on course to improve his personal best on the inters before backing off and pitting – and team-mate Valtteri Bottas also, there was drama when Hamilton hit the wall coming through the tight pit-lane entry inside the last corner.

Hamilton’s front wing needed to be change and his front suspension checked, with the Mercedes crew moving the Briton out of the way for Bottas to put his fresh tyres on and so the Finn was not held up.

But that left both Silver Arrows drivers with less time to get their respective F1 W12’s tyre temperatures up to optimal temperature and they could not make the improvements made by the drivers that switched to the softs earlier.

Hamilton then spun out at turn 16 on his only hot-lap on the softs, which meant he was demoted down from the top three.

Sainz initially claimed pole position setting a 1:42.510, but Norris beat the Spaniard in sectors two and three to take his maiden Formula 1 career pole on a 1:41.993.

Russell found enough time to jump from P10 to move ahead of his future Mercedes team-mate, with the other McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo fifth behind Hamilton.

Then Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso qualified seventh and in-front of Bottas, who was seventh, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who qualified eighth, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez taking ninth and the other Alpine A521 entry of Esteban Ocon rounding out the top ten.

Ricciardo and Stroll are currently under investigation by the race stewards for an incident by the pairing in Q1.

In Q2, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was knocked out after a last-gasp improvement from Russell who put on his final set of inters (since the beginning of qualifying), which paid off after setting a series of personal bests and saw the Williams driver progress into Q3 on his final flying tour, meaning the Vettel will start 11th on the grid.

Scuderia AlphaTauri pairing Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda were 12th and 13th respectively with the other Williams of Nicholas Latifi 14th and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc 15th.

Latifi and Leclerc will also join Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen at the back of the grid due to taking on new power-units with the former given his fourth engine of the season ahead of qualifying after a pneumatic issue was discovered on his previous power-train yesterday.

After progressing from Q1 into the middle segment like Leclerc, Latifi only emerged to complete two sectors in the early stages – and then again at the end of the session – and pitted without registering a lap-time.

In the first qualifying segment, Gasly lead out the long pack of cars as soon as the session began, with all teams keen to get the times onboard in-case the rain returned, with Alonso the driver to run the blue-marked full wets.

The times fell by six seconds as the circuit dried throughout the initial qualifying stage, which Verstappen did not take part in due to starting at the back of the pack due to his power-train change penalty.

The Dutchman hit the track to complete two sectors on a sighting lap, then pitted and hopped out of his Honda-powered RB16B racer.

The session featured two spins – one for Perez at the second corner and one for Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi exiting turn 16 just ahead of Leclerc – ending with most of the midfield runners pitting for a fresh set of intermediates.

This combined with a drying Sochi Autodrom saw the times continue to get quicker, with all the eliminated runners – bar Giovinazzi who backed out at this stage – posting personal bests on their final flyers at the end of the session.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen was the quickest of the Q1 eliminatees taking 16th and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher who was 17th and his team-mate Giovinazzi in 18th.

Giovinazzi also suffered a spin going through turn 16 and almost collected the Ferrari of Leclerc with the latter avoiding the Alfa just in-time.

The other Haas VF-21 entry of Nikita Mazepin was 19th with the aforementioned Verstappen at the rear as the latter will start at the back due to a new power-train and exhaust.

You can see the full Formula 1 VTB Russian Grand Prix 2021 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1077/russia/qualifying.html

2021 Russian GP Qualifying – The Top Three

2021 Russian GP Pole Position – Lando Norris, #4, McLaren Racing-Mercedes, MCL35M, 1:41.993:

“It feels amazing, I don’t know what to say. it was a manic session. Extremely happy, thanks to the team as well, they’ve done an amazing job. That crossover session, the lap before I was two seconds down and wasn’t very confident we could improve. I risked quite a bit and it paid off.”

2nd Place – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, SF21, +0.517:

“Right from the beginning, a very tricky qualifying. We did a very good strategy, a pretty strong lap. Unfortunately I was one of the first to cross the line so I wasn’t able to exploit the track [improvements]. We ill put on a fight and try and have some fun. Starting P2, the dirty side, it’s really penalising.”

3rd Place – George Russell, Williams Racing-Mercedes, FW43B, +0.990

“I mean it’s crazy, second time in the top three, the team have done an amazing job. There was one dry line and if you were just a centimetre wide, you were on the wet stuff and off. Yesterday our high fuel pace was one of our best of the year, so I’ve got to go for the podium again, nothing to lose.”

 

The earlier FP3 session was abandoned due to heavy rain and thunderstorms. You can read more here at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.final-practice-session-for-the-russian-grand-prix-cancelled-due-to-heavy.5M2CsqmNkudVMRbsfu4EIT.html

#RussianGP FP2: @ValtteriBottas heads @MercedesAMGF1 team-mate @LewisHamilton by 0.044 seconds. #F1

#RussianGP FP1: @ValtteriBottas leads @MercedesAMGF1 one-two. #F1

#Formula1 VTB #RussianGrandPrix 2021 Race Preview. #F1 #RussianGP