Finland’s Valtteri Bottas has snatched pole position for the Russian Grand Prix with Mercedes teammate and Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton having to settle for second place on the starting grid.

Hamilton’s Ferrari title rival Sebastian Vettel, 40 points behind the Briton with six races remaining in the battle of four-times world champions, will start third at the Black Sea circuit on Sunday.

“It feels good,” said Bottas.

“Coming to this weekend I knew that normally it’s been a pretty good track for me and again I managed to get some good laps in. The car just felt really strong.”

The pole, in a track record of one minute 31.387 seconds, was only the second this season for Bottas, who is 110 points behind Hamilton.

It also came at the track where last year he celebrated his first win.

The second phase of qualifying had a strange feel to it, with five cars — the two Red Bulls including Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo, Renaults and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly — doing no laps as a consequence of grid penalties.

Renault had no need to do anything, since the other three cars were all going to start at the back of the grid, and failure to qualify in the top 10 gave them the benefit of tyre choice.

Denmark’s Kevin Magnussen will line up in fifth place for Haas, behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, with Frenchman Esteban Ocon — highly rated but looking increasingly likely to be sitting out next season — sixth for Force India.

“It’s strange being best of the rest,” commented Magnussen.

“You don’t want to get involved with the guys in front as that can mess up your own race. Hopefully I will have a clean track.”

Sauber’s Ferrari-bound rookie Charles Leclerc qualified seventh.

McLaren and Williams filled the last four slots but that will change once Red Bull’s Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, along with Toro Rosso’s Gasly and Brendon Hartley, take their penalties.

That should at least give the crowd some overtaking to look forward to and Verstappen something to make his 21st birthday more exciting.