Charles Leclerc claimed his fourth straight pole in a thrilling qualifying battle at the Russian Grand Prix.
The Monegasque was simply dominant in the top 10 shootout as he improved on both laps to post a 1m31.628s in the Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton did the optimum for Mercedes, splitting the two red cars in second as Sebastian Vettel had to settle for third.
Q1
The first part of qualifying saw Vettel under pressure after a mistake on his first lap left him in the bottom five.
Then, a crash for Alex Albon at Turn 13 would leave the German just six minutes to improve after a red flag but, after switching to soft tyres, he would improve to lead the session.
That left the fight to avoid elimination between Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll and the two Alfa Romeo’s, with Antonio Giovinazzi knocking out teammate Kimi Raikkonen in the final moments.
George Russell took 17th for Williams, finishing 1.1 seconds ahead of teammate Robert Kubica in 18th.
Albon though will inherit that starting place as Kubica and Daniil Kvyat were already set to start at the back due to engine penalties.
Q2
Having struggled all weekend, Mercedes took a different approach from their rivals opting to use the medium tyre on which to start the race.
Both Ferrari’s continued to lead on the softs, with Charles Leclerc 0.6s clear of Vettel and Verstappen third on the same tyre.
The duel to make the top 10 was fierce as less than half a tenth covered P6-P10 with another tenth back to Kevin Magnussen in P11.
Romain Grosjean made the biggest move into the top 10 in sixth as Daniel Ricciardo likewise left it late to make Q3 in the Renault
Their promotions came at the expense of Gasly in P11 and Sergio Perez in 12th, who missed out on Q3 by just 0.06s.
Giovinazzi can be happy with 13th as Kevin Magnussen and Stroll completed the top 15.
Q3
Into the pole position shootout with all of top five still making a claim for the top spot.
It was Leclerc though with the early advantage, a third of a second clear of Vettel and over half a second ahead of Hamilton in third.
The Briton would respond on his second lap, pipping the German into P2 and moving into the front row.
No one could stop Leclerc though as he improved again on his second lap to secure a sixth pole of the season.
Max Verstappen improved to fourth on his final effort, as Valtteri Bottas couldn’t produce a clean lap in Q3 and had to settle for fifth.
Behind the top five, McLaren and Renault again sat at the head of the midfield with Carlos Sainz snatching sixth from Nico Hulkenberg.
Lando Norris followed in eighth while Grosjean would beat Daniel Ricciardo as the Australian completed the top 10.
Full results from qualifying can be seen below:
