LEWIS HAMILTON nearly stuffed it up in Sochi but will start his bid to become F1’s joint-record race winner from pole.
The Brit was made to sweat on a number of occasions as he labelled the dramatic qualifying session as “one of the worst” adding “it was horrible, heart in your mouth the whole way”.
Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole position as he chases Schumacher’s win recordCredit: AFP
Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari was taken off on a tow truck after a horror smashCredit: Getty Images – Getty
After rare mistakes, a red flag, a stewards’ investigation and a brilliant recovery, Hamilton was finally allowed to keep his 96th pole position.
He said: “I got the time taken away, then the red flag came out. It was one of the hardest qualifying sessions I can remember having.
“Everything was rushed and there was so much panic.”
The drama happened midway through the session when Hamilton was penalised by the stewards for missing the corner at turn 18 and had his lap time deleted.
Hamilton was prevented from having another crack when his Mercedes team told him to stop for new soft tyres – against his wishes.
And he was plunged further into danger when Sebastian Vettel’s big crash saw qualifying red flagged with a little over two minutes remaining.
With no lap time on the board, Hamilton risked being booted out of qualifying.
And when the session did restart, he almost crashed immediately on cold tyres and only just crossed the line with one second to spare to begin his flying lap.
His race engineer, the usually composed Pete Bonnington was noticeably anxious as he hurried his driver to cross the line, saying “need to go, need to go…”
Hamilton responded with a lap time that was good enough for fourth and reached Q3 where, in the top 10 shoot-out, he composed himself to dominate.
His first lap was good but his second was even better as he took pole ahead Max Verstappen, who will start second, with an excellent recovery.
Hamilton added: “I calmed myself down and found my centre because I wanted to deliver. I had to deliver on those two laps.
“We are all under immense pressure and I would say experience helps massively in order to help me regain my focus.
“I don’t always get it right but, especially this year, I have been able to center myself and deliver laps when it counts.”
Hamilton was allowed to keep his pole after the race stewards took no further action after an investigation into why he had missed a chicane earlier in the qualifying session.
But says that even though he will start in front, he is on the less durable, soft tyre, and knows he could be leapfrogged by Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas, who lines up in third on the grid.
He said: “It’s nice to be on pole but this probably the worst place to be on pole with the draggier cars this year.
“Undoubtedly I’m most likely to get dragged past. Both the cars I’m racing against are on the medium tyres so it will definitely make it hard to win the race.
“But I’m definitely going to stay positive and try and figure out how I can navigate through and get a good start.”
Lewis Hamilton wears t-shirt demanding justice for Breonna Taylor on the podium after winning the Tuscan F1 GP
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
