Nico Rosberg took pole position for the Russian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton aborted his final run after an error.
With Rosberg having had the upper hand throughout qualifying, Hamilton needed to find 0.3s on his final run but went off at Turn 13 on his out lap and returned to the pits. With Rosberg not in danger from anyone other than his team-mate, he too then pitted a lap later as Mercedes locked out the front row.
Valtteri Bottas will start from third place after getting the better of Sebastian Vettel, with the Ferrari ending up just 0.053s adrift in fourth. Kimi Raikkonen also aborted his final lap after making the same mistake as Hamilton but will start fifth, with Nico Hulkenberg sixth.
It was an impressive session for Force India with Sergio Perez ending up one place behind his team-mate in seventh, with Romain Grosjean, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top ten.
Q2 saw a couple of surprises as Daniil Kvyat failed to reach the final part of qualifying at his home race, with his final lap only good enough for 11th place as he complained "the tyres are not ready". Things were even worse for Felipe Massa who made an error on his final run and went wide, eventually dropping out in 15th place.
Between Kvyat and Massa were Felipe Nasr, Jenson Button and Pastor Maldoando, with both Nasr and Button comfortably outqualifying their team-mates. For Button, 13th place marks his second best qualifying performance of the season, having only qualified higher in Monaco.
With Carlos Sainz not taking part in qualifying following his heavy crash in FP3, there were only four drivers who would drop out alongside the Toro Rosso in Q1. Fernando Alonso failed to make it through as he was pipped to 15th place by Nasr by 0.1s, with the Spaniard already having a 35-place grid penalty hanging over him.
Marcus Ericsson was unable to match his team-mate on his last lap and also dropped out alongside the two Manor drivers, with Will Stevens beating the returning Roberto Merhi by just 0.1s.
AS IT HAPPENED: Russian Grand Prix qualifying
Gallery: Carlos Sainz's crash in FP3
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| Pos | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:38.343 | 1:37.500 | 1:37.113 |
| 02 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:38.558 | 1:37.672 | 1:37.433 |
| 03 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:38.448 | 1:38.194 | 1:37.912 |
| 04 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:38.598 | 1:38.402 | 1:37.965 |
| 05 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:39.207 | 1:38.224 | 1:38.348 |
| 06 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:39.250 | 1:38.727 | 1:38.659 |
| 07 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:39.617 | 1:38.914 | 1:38.691 |
| 08 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:39.056 | 1:38.754 | 1:38.787 |
| 09 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:39.411 | 1:39.119 | 1:38.924 |
| 10 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:39.574 | 1:39.005 | 1:39.728 |
| 11 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:39.580 | 1:39.214 | |
| 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:40.042 | 1:39.232 | |
| 13 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:39.739 | 1:39.763 | |
| 14 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:39.724 | 1:39.811 | |
| 15 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:38.926 | 1:39.895 | |
| 16 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:40.144 | ||
| 17 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:40.660 | ||
| 18 | Will Stevens | Manor | 1:43.693 | ||
| 19 | Roberto Merhi | Manor | 1:43.804 | ||
| 20 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso |
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