Lewis Hamilton will start the inaugural Russian Grand Prix from pole position having edged his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg at the new Sochi street circuit.

Rosberg had topped the timesheets briefly in the final segment of qualifying, but two strong runs from Hamilton saw him shoot to his seventh pole of the season.

Hamilton ended the session with a personal best of 1:38.513s exactly two tenths quicker than his title rival Rosberg.

Once again the Williams of Valtteri Bottas proved to be the best of the rest in third with the Finn only four tenths adrift of the Mercedes pair.

McLaren’s improved showing continued into qualifying with Jenson Button securing fourth on the grid with team-mate Kevin Magnussen in sixth. But a five place penalty for a gearbox change will drop the rookie to 11^th on the grid.

Russian Daniil Kvyat impressed his home crowd with the Toro Rosso driver delivering a time good enough for fifth, his best qualifying result of his fledgling F1 career.

Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo will start from sixth as a result of Magnussen’s penalty ahead of the Ferrari duo of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.

Sebastian Vettel struggled in Q2 with his RB10 more than a second off the pace of Ricciardo due to a suspected technical problem. Despite a late improvement, he could only manage to secure 11^th on the road, but will start the race from 10^th position.

Both the Saubers of Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil failed to progress to Q3 along with the Lotus of Romain Grosjean.

However, Felipe Massa produced the surprise of Q1 as a fuel pressure problem held the Williams driver back, finishing in 18^th position behind the Caterham of Marcus Ericsson.

Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado will start from the back of the grid as he continues to serve a 10 place penalty incurred for an engine change at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Russian Grand Prix Qualifying Results