Hamilton pulls pole out of bag after Q2 Red Flag scare; Red Bull’s Verstappen beats out Bottas for P2 to split Mercedes duo

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton barely squeaked through the second round of qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi Autodrom on Saturday after having his only lap in Q2 deleted for exceeding track limits and then being balked by a Red Flag situation late in the session. With only a shade over two minutes remaining in Q2 Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel lost control of his Prancing Horse and suffered a heavy sideways shunt at the exit of Turn 4 that left his car in pieces and saw his teammate Charles Leclerc barely avoid his smashed car for what could have been a much more serious accident. However, the cleanup of Vettel’s broken Ferrari necessitated a Red Flag stoppage of qualifying and forced Hamilton back into the pits along with the rest of the field. And with only a meager 2:15 left in the session that meant that all the drivers would also have to do an unaccustomed hurry up on the out lap to make it to the start line prior to the session expiring. Despite a big Mercedes gamble that ended up sending out Hamilton essentially last in the queue, the superlative English pilot made it to the line with just a tick over a second remaining left in his pocket. Now on Soft Pirellis after doffing the preferred Medium compound tires to try and squeeze as much speed as possible out of the lap, Hamilton set a time  good enough to get him into Q3 and then quickly returned to dominating the rest of the field on pace. Hamilton easily set the pole time after that Q2 squeaker and reinforced that he is the best driver in the best car and the rest are just swimming in his wake. The only possible fly in the ointment is that Hamilton will have to start the race on the rather fragile Soft tires with which he set his fastest — and only — lap time in Q2, as per the rules.

That could open him up to attack via overcut by Red Bull’s Max Verstppen, who bested Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas for second quickest to earn the honor of starting alongside Lewis on the grid. Verstappen also gambled by betting that his best time in Q2 on Mediums would carry him through, which it did, and so the Dutch wunderkind will start on the strategically preferred tire, potentially running far longer than Hamilton on the opening stint. Bottas had to settle for P3 and the second row after taking too much curb on his final flying lap, thereby losing a crucial tenth of a second by which Verstappen bested him. However, Bottas will also be starting on the Mediums so the Finn may be able to salvage a potential victory by similarly making the most of his more durable rubber to Hamilton’s disadvantage, in addition to the Mercedes’ overall superior pace hopefully overhauling the Red Bull of Verstappen. The first 20 laps or so of tomorrow’s 56-lap contest should be extremely interesting!

Filling out the remainder of the Top 10 qualifiers, Sergio Perez really excelled to hustle his Racing Point up to best of the rest in P4 and will line up alongside Bottas in machine with equally good straight-line speed. Daniel Ricciardo also looked extremely fast in his Renault and set the fifth fastest time by the time the day’s final checkered flag had flown, while his younger teammate Esteban Ocon managed a lap good enough for P7. The McLaren of Carlos Sainz split the yellow Renaults, earning P6 on the grid, while his teammate Lando Norris will start from P8. The AlphaTauri of the impressive Frenchman Pierre Gasly was P9 in quali but the man who replaced him at Red Bull last year, Alexander Albon, was again miles away from his splendid stablemate Verstappen and will start from way back in P10.

While Vettel was unhurt by his rather heavy crash his team is going to have a big job rebuilding his car overnight and have him ready to start the Grand Prix. No doubt he will also start from then pits if they can get it rebuilt in time. The other Ferrari of Leclerc was bounced in Q2 with only the eleventh fastest time but the aggrieved Monegasque will have the silver lining of an extra set of tires and the choice of which ones to start on that could help his overall race result. Still, this can hardly be the Saturday at Sochi that team Ferrari had hoped for and both their drivers will have to make the best of bad situations if they are to come away with any points at all tomorrow.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Russian GP:

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 starting at 7AM Eastern here in the States. Between the split strategies of the Mercedes teammates and the hard charging Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who smells blood in the water and potential victory in the air, expect some real fireworks along the coast of the Black Sea. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!