Hamilton happy despite being beaten by Bottas to Russian GP pole

Lewis Hamilton says he is still happy with the progress he and his Mercedes team have made in Russia despite missing out on pole position to his teammate Valtteri Bottas.

An uncharacteristic mistake from Hamilton on his final attempt robbed him of any chance he had of pole, with Bottas also improving on his final run.

After qualifying, Hamilton went over to Bottas and gave him a hearty congratulations on the grid, saying that his teammate had just done a better job during qualifying than he did.

"Firstly a big congratulations to Valtteri, he's been driving well this weekend and he just did a better job," Hamilton said in the post-qualifying interview.

Mercedes will be looking to convert their front row lock-out tomorrow in a race that they have dominated since being added to the calendar back in 2014.