Bottas takes pole in Mercedes front row lock-out! - Qualifying report and results

Valtteri Bottas finished on top in the battle between the two Mercedes' to take pole position for the Russian Grand Prix. Teammate Lewis Hamilton finished second with Sebastian Vettel a distant third.

Qualifying got underway with Kevin Magnussen and local hero Sergey Sirotkin heading out first. Both Ferrari’s were quickly out after struggling in final practice.

Vettel was quickest of all until the Mercedes pair were on the scene, Valtteri Bottas going fastest of all but teammate Hamilton had been set to beat that time until he backed out of his lap in the final sector.

Hamilton was on it on his second run though, going faster than Bottas and distancing himself from the Ferrari drivers by half a second.

Red Bull did eventually go out with Verstappen and Ricciardo setting times that were quicker than Ferrari could manage despite in all probability having a race set-up on the car.

The championship leader extended his advantage on his final run of the session to go half a second clear of anybody showing just how well the Mercedes was working around the Olympic park.

A late spin for Sirotkin brought out the yellow flags which didn’t change too much in terms of who was eliminated, both Williams’, McLaren’s and Brendon Hartley losing out in Q1 and eliminated.

Both Ferrari and Mercedes were straight out onto the track in Q2 and all four drivers were on the ultrasoft tyres, already thinking about the race strategy for tomorrow.

The softer and faster hypersoft tyre looks like it will not last long in the race and both teams hoped they would have the pace to opt for the slower tyre, but gain returns in the race with a longer first stint.

Mercedes again showed their stronger pace with Ferrari almost half a second adrift of Hamilton’s time after their first runs.

A dash for the final Q3 session was avoided with both Red Bull’s both Renault’s and the sole remaining Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly all sitting out of the second session.

It meant we had an unusual session with Renault opting to not go out with both cars guaranteed to start 11th and 12th with free tyre choice with Ricciardo, Verstappen and Gasly going to the back of the grid.

Mercedes were out straight away in Q3 again to guarantee them space and clear air for their laps, Bottas ahead of Hamilton on track and on the timing sheets after their first runs by just 0.004s.

Ferrari was adrift by half a second after run one confirming that they had no pace to challenge Mercedes for pole.

Esteban Ocon went ahead of Charles Leclerc in the fight for best of the rest, with Perez and the Haas duo lagging further behind.

Bottas was able to extend his advantage in the final runs with a fantastic lap after an uncharacteristic mistake from Hamilton meant his second run was ruined. Ferrari looked further adrift than in their first run and never threatened the Silver Arrows. Vettel managed to limit the damage with P3 ahead of his teammate in fourth.

QUALIFYING CLASSIFICATION: A second pole of 2018 for @ValtteriBottas #RussianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/3mGByLUYXl

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 29, 2018