McLaren's Norris takes 'manic' maiden pole at Russian Grand Prix

Norris is joined on the front row by the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, his former teammate, with Lewis Hamilton starting on the second row in his latest attempt at reaching 100 wins.

Hamilton was looking good for pole after topping the timesheets in Q1 and Q2, but he then suffered late drama with three minutes left of Q3 when he hit the pit wall requiring a hastily fitted new front wing to his damaged Mercedes.

A spin on his re-emergence out onto the circuit on slick tyres left the door open for 21-year-old Norris to steal the show at Sochi with a flying last lap of 1min 41.993sec.

"Oh boy. It feels amazing. Manic session," beamed the Briton, fresh from his team's first one-two in over a decade at the Italian Grand Prix.

"We made the decision to go slicks, you never think you will get pole until you get it," he added.

The refreshingly different complexion of the top of the grid was completed by George Russell of Williams.

He posted the third quickest time to start alongside seven-time world champion Hamilton, his teammate when he replaces Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes next season.

"It is crazy. Second time in the top three in three or four events, the team have done an amazing job," said the 22-year-old referring to a brilliant qualifying session at Spa to gain his first podium in the rain-ruined Belgian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen, who leads Hamilton by five points ahead of this 15th round of the season, starts from the back of the grid due to an engine change penalty on his Red Bull.

"As I will be starting from the back of the grid anyway, we decided to take no risks and to skip quali," the Dutch driver tweeted.

- 'Lewis can still win' -

"Quite an interesting quali result! It's full focus on the race, in which I'll try to fight my way forward and hopefully have some fun."

Hamilton, meanwhile, will be counting on exploiting Verstappen's penalty to the fullest at the circuit on the shores of the Black Sea where he has already won four times with Mercedes undefeated since the race first appeared on the calendar in 2014.

Stuck on 99 wins since Silverstone on July 18 the world champion will hope his car's race pace will see him finally become F1's first century man.

"I think with Lewis we can still win this race," said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.

Hamilton was upset with what he readily acknowledged was "a mistake from myself" when hitting the wall.

"Ultimately, incredibly disappointed in myself. Until then I was in a groove, I was really in the zone and I'm really sorry for all the team that are here and back at the factory because that's not what you expect from a champion.

"But it is what it is and I'll do my best tomorrow to try and rectify it," he told Sky.

In fifth spot for Sunday's race is Norris's teammate, Monza winner Daniel Ricciardo with the Alpine of Fernando Alonso for company on the third row.

Bottas and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll come next with Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull and Esteban Ocon of Alpine completing the top 10.

Qualifying got underway as scheduled after a dramatic improvement in conditions following torrential rain which washed out the morning's third and final practice.

The deluge left the circuit in the Olympic Park under water, but thankfully the rain relented to allow a qualifying session that Norris won't forget in a hurry.

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