Valtteri Bottas will start on pole position for the 2018 Russian Grand Prix thanks to a faultless lap around the Sochi circuit, to pip team-mate Lewis Hamilton by a little over a tenth for an all-Mercedes front row.
The pole is Bottas' second of the season and the Finn will be hoping to convert it into his first victory of the year on Sunday when he lines up alongside Hamilton and ahead of the two Ferraris in third and fourth.
Following the first flying laps of the final Q3 session, Bottas held a small 0.004s advantage over Hamilton, but was able to extend his lead to 0.145s after his second lap, whilst Hamilton went wide and had to back out of his effort, despite being three tenths up in the first sector alone.
The Ferraris had no answer for Mercedes' pace as Vettel slotted into third, more than half a second down. Raikkonen a further three-tenths adrift.
Kevin Magnussen sneaked into fifth to take the 'best of the rest' crown thanks to penalties for the two Red Bull cars, which opted not to run in Q2 in order to keep their strategy options open with a free tyre choice on Sunday.
That decision led to a slightly mixed top ten behind the leading two teams with Esteban Ocon in sixth for Force India, followed by Sauber's Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Romain Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson in tenth.
Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were 11th and 12th by default, though both will drop to the back of the grid when their engine and gearbox penalties are taken into account.
It was a similar story for Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly who was classified 13th despite not setting a time in Q2, but he too will drop down the order, like team-mate Brendon Hartley who failed to escape Q1.
Renault's Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg also chose not to qualify and will be promoted ahead of the Red Bull cars to start just outside the top ten.
Fernando Alonso was 17th ahead of local driver Sergey Sirotkin, who spun in the final seconds of the session. Stoffel Vandoorne and Lance Stroll were P19 and P20.
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