Hamilton on POLE for Russian Grand Prix – but he was nearly 15th

Lewis Hamilton will start on pole position at the 2020 Russian Grand Prix, with Versatppen second and Bottas third. But it was nearly a 15th place start.

The headlines for qualify at the 2020 Russian Grand Prix are pretty straightforward: Hamilton iis on Pole for Mercedes, Vertsappen starts second in the Red Bull and Bottas third in the Mercedes. But it very nearly wasn’t so.

In Q2 Hamilton ran wide at the final corner on his first lap and as a result had his lap time deleted. Hamilton wanted to stay out and do a second lap but was overruled by his team and hit the pits.

When he went out for a second run he was three corners from the end of his lap when Vettel crashed and the session was red-flagged with just two minutes left.

When it restarted Hamilton found himself eighth in the queue to hit the track, and as he hit the final corner before his lap could start he was urged to get a shake-on by his team as the session was nearly timed-out. He passed the line just before the red lights came on to end the session. If he hadn’t made it he’d be starting fifteenth. Which might have made for an interesting race.

The lap he managed in Q2 left him fourth in the session – good enough – but the shenanigans saw him switch to softs – a team decision, not Hamilton’s – which could make for an interesting race after all as starting on softs could mean two stops for Hamilton and only one for the rest.

In Q3 Hamilton took pole easily, with Verstappen starting second and Bottas third, followed by Perez in the Racing Point in fourth, Ricciardo in the Renault fifth, Sainz in the McLaren in sixth, Ocon in the Renault seventh, Norris in the McLaren eighth, Gasly in the AlphaTauri ninth and Albon in the Red Bull 10th.