Valtteri Bottas had never been out-qualified by a team mate at Sochi going into this weekend. And after Saturday's qualifying session, he still hasn't. The Finn maintained that superb Russian record by pulling a fine lap out of the bag in Q3 to claim his second pole position of the year.

Bottas had laid down a marker early in the final segment, going fastest in the first runs after Lewis Hamilton had looked to be in imperious form in the early part of the session. On the second runs, though, Hamilton blitzed the first sector but ran wide through Turn 7 and had to abort the lap, while Bottas stayed cool and lowered the bar yet further. Ferrari couldn’t get close, with Sebastian Vettel only managing a time that was over half a second back from Bottas to go third. He led team mate Kimi Raikkonen to lock out a Ferrari second row, while Kevin Magnussen managed to pinch the best of the rest mantle in the final stages of Q3, the Haas driver going fifth fastest to equal his best start of the year. Top 10

1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1m 31.387
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m 31.532
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrarri	1m 19.294
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m 32.237
5	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1m 33.181
6	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1m 33.413
7	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1m 33.419
8	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1m 33.563
9	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1m 33.704
10	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	NC