Bottas beats Hamilton for POLE at Russian Grand Prix in Mercedes front row

Valtteri Bottas beats Lewis Hamilton to pole position for the 2018 Russian Grand Prix as Mercedes dominate qualifying and lock out the front row.

No one can deny that Lewis Hamilton has exceeded expectations this year as Ferrari has failed to capitalise on what seems a better car.

And in qualifying for the 2018 Russian Grand Prix today Hamilton looked set to take pole position as he dominated Q1 and Q2. But it wasn’t to be.

Despite two terrific runs in Q3, Hamilton was less consistent through the laps than team mate Bottas, and it is Bottas going in to tomorrow’s race in pole position, beating Hamilton in to second spot by 0.145s.

For Ferrari, despite aerodynamic upgrades to their cars this weekend (Mercedes also came with updates), Vettel looked to be about half a second off the pace of the Mercedes throughout, and he ended up taking third spot on the grid, 0.556s off the pace, with team mate Raikkonen alongside in fourth.

It’s Magnussen’s Haas in fifth, the Force Indias of Ocon and Perez in sixth and eight – split by Leclerc in the Sauber – Grosjean’s Haas in ninth and the Sauber of Ericsson in 10th.

Sadly, it’s the British teams propping up the grid at the back, with Alonso in 17th for McLaren, Sirotkin in the Williams in 18th, Vandoorne’s McLaren in 19th and Stroll’s Williams starting at the back.

Two of the most storied teams in F1 sitting at the back. Can it get any worse?