Lando Norris: A Russian GP pole won in conditions in which the best stand out
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Audio and text commentary of the Russian Grand Prix is live on the BBC Sport website
For Lando Norris, this moment had been coming all year, even if he would never have said so himself.
The modest and self-effacing 21-year-old Briton has been one of the stars of the season in his McLaren. There have been a number of standout performances. And in Russia on Saturday he pulled out the best of the lot for his maiden Formula 1 pole position.
As statements go, this was a big one. More than half a second clear of anyone else, more than two seconds quicker than team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who was fifth fastest. Norris had long ago marked himself out as one of F1's brightest rising stars; this was just the final confirmation.
It was a pole won in the sort of conditions in which the best drivers always stand out, a qualifying session that started with a wet track that slowly dried throughout to the point that it was just about ready for untreaded 'slick' tyres right at the end.
Norris was one of a number of drivers who came into the pits early enough to do two laps on slicks in the final minutes, to ensure they were up to the optimum temperature for the best performance - something that the Mercedes drivers conspicuously did not, to their detriment.
These are especially demanding circumstances, in which racing drivers are venturing into the unknown, and the tiniest mistake, a few centimetres off the one dry line, can lead to disaster. And Norris judged them to perfection.
"The difficult thing is that it is 10 of the best people in the world trying to put these laps in," Norris said, "so you can't just drive around under the limit and know what to expect.
"Sometimes you have to push it over and find out whether you've made it once you've gone through the corner.
"There were quite a few corners where I thought: 'I might have gone in a bit hard here and this all could go rather wrong.' But it didn't. That's just the level you've got to be at to be in this position, so I'm happy I took those risks and made those decisions because they paid off.
"Many times during the lap I thought it was all going to go quite badly wrong and I was going to mess it up, especially in the final chicane, Turns 15 and 16. It was still very wet in that section and I had quite a few big wheel-spins and big snaps. But I kept it cool and brought it home. It was fun."
The result was, in the admiring words of team-mate Ricciardo, "a very good lap - a great lap".
Norris might already have a pole position this year - he was right on the pace in the wet at the Belgian Grand Prix last month, too. But that time it did end in disaster, when he lost control at Eau Rouge and smashed his car to bits.
This time he was just on the right side of the line between risk and reward, and it paid off in spectacular style.
Joining him at the front of an unexpected starting line-up are Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Williams' George Russell, both also doing an outstanding job in the conditions. Russell, in particular, once again excelled and took his second top three grid slot in four races, after sticking the Williams on the front row at Spa.
Sainz and Russell form a buffer between Norris and the man who is probably still the favourite for the race win given the performance of his car, Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton.
But the pace of the Mercedes is far from Norris' only concern. The run to the first corner at Sochi is the longest on the calendar, and the track is famous for providing slipstreaming opportunities at the start that can make starting second and third an advantage over being at the front.
Norris' pole comes just two weeks after Ricciardo won for McLaren in Italy, having passed Max Verstappen's Red Bull at the start and led throughout.
Apart from the run from the start to the first corner, overtaking is certainly no easier in Sochi than in Monza, so what does Norris think his chances are of making it two McLaren wins from two?
"Daniel was a lot more positive and confident of it last time out," Norris replied. "He said he was going to go out and get a win and he did.
"Maybe I need to change my approach a little bit more. Normally I am more downbeat and then if it turns out positive it's better, rather than being positive and then coming up with a negative.
"I will try my best. I will go for it. I believe we can. There is an opportunity for it, but Mercedes are still a quick as they have been all season and this is one of their best circuits all season. It is going to be a good challenge but I'm up for it."
Hamilton could win his 100th race on Sunday
Hamilton 'embarrassed' by pit lane error
Until the final five minutes of the session, pole looked to be going Hamilton's way.
Mercedes have always been strong at Sochi - no other team has ever won there since its debut on the calendar in 2014 - and Hamilton was fastest in both the first two sessions of qualifying and on the first runs in the final session.
But it all went wrong for him when he came in to change to slick tyres.
Mercedes made that call later than the others - it's always harder to take that risk when you are at the front, because there is more to lose and less to gain. Time was tight. Hamilton slid wide as he rounded the final corner in the pit lane and hit the wall, rear first and then front, breaking his front wing.
Pandemonium followed in the Mercedes pit. Hamilton's slick tyres were fitted but he also needed a new front wing. Meanwhile, team-mate Valtteri Bottas was waiting behind for his own fresh set of tyres.
Hamilton was wheeled to one side to give Bottas the chance to get out, and by the time the seven-time champion pulled away, he had been stationary for more than a minute. His tyres had lost temperature - critical in these conditions - and he spun on his final lap.
It was far from his best performance, although his lap on intermediates at the start on the session was so good - 0.7secs faster than Bottas - that he still managed to qualify fourth.
Later, team boss Toto Wolff said that the fiasco in the pit lane had not made any difference - because they had delayed their pit stop for tyres long enough that there was only ever going to be time for one flying lap on slicks, not the two required for best performance.
It appeared to some as if Hamilton had squandered a golden opportunity to maximise his result with title rival Max Verstappen starting from the back after a grid penalty for using too many engines. But Hamilton denied that had had anything to do with it.
"It was really nothing to do with pressure," he said. "It wasn't a pressure scenario. It was literally just mistakes do happen.
"I knew I didn't have a huge amount of time and I was attacking. I was trying to get through the pit lane as quick as possible because I knew I would need as much time as possible on track.
"The previous times coming into the pit lane, I took it really quite slowly. The track was drying and the grip was really quite good, and I took it a little bit quicker than normal and just lost the back end and slid into the wall.
"Yes, of course embarrassing and disappointed in myself. But we all make mistakes.
"Of course it's not what you would expect a world champion to do but the problem when you have the success that I have is that anything but perfection feels like a long way off, but I'm only human.
"My dad called me afterwards and we talked about it and you just move on and I'll get my racing head back on back focused and hopefully being in a good race."
Hamilton's collision with the pit wall - and a subsequent lighter brush with the wall when he spun on his final run - have given him some anxious moments as Mercedes check the car over for damage, although he said the initial indications were that all should be well.
If he holds on to fourth place on the grid, he still has a major opportunity to put a significant amount of points on Verstappen, depending upon where the Red Bull driver recovers to.
All three drivers in front of him know the Mercedes is a much quicker car than theirs, and that holding him back will not be easy. Hamilton has not won since the British Grand Prix back in July. And if somehow he can get to the front, a landmark 100th career win is up for grabs.
"It will come when it comes but of course I will be giving it absolutely everything tomorrow chasing it," Hamilton said. "It's a big number. It seems like it's taken longer than ever before, but it's a pretty cool number to wait for."