Sochi, Sept. 26 -- : Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton took a pole position in a dramatic qualifying race at the Russian Grand Prix after narrowly avoiding early elimination when Sebastian Vettel crashed.
Hamilton claimed his 96th pole position by a huge 0.563s from Max Verstappen despite coming within a matter of seconds of being knocked out of Q2 in a qualifying session that saw Sebastian Vettel crash heavily to bring out the red flags.
Hamilton had his Q2 time deleted for a track limits infringement leaving him in the drop zone when Vettel crashed at Turn 4 with just over two minutes left of the session, bringing out the red flags.
When the session was restarted, Hamilton crossed the line with less than two seconds to spare to begin his flying...