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Russian Grand Prix LIVE!
Lewis Hamilton heads into today's race just one triumph shy of Michael Schumacher's record 91 F1 victories.
The Mercedes driver will start on pole after a dramatic qualifying session where he nearly ended up 15th before charging to a track-record time of 1 minute, 31.304 seconds, beating the Red Bull of Max Verstappen by .563 for his fifth straight pole position.
Victory today will see him match the legendary German's record race haul - and take a step closer to his seven World Championships.
Follow all the action with Standard Sport's LIVE blog!
TV channel
Sky Sports subscribers can watch full coverage of qualifying today from 12.30pm (BST) on the Sky Sports F1 channel, with qualifying scheduled to begin at 2pm.
It is available to watch via Now TV with a day pass for £9.99, or a three-month pass on offer for £25.
Those who do not have a Sky Sports subscription can still watch qualifying as it is being screened on free-to-air TV on Channel 4, with coverage also including Sunday's race.
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Formation lap
The cars are heading off around the 5.848km circuit to get those tyres warm and a feel for the conditions ahead of the race start.
FIVE MINUTES TO LIGHTS OUT
It's nearly time for the race!
Though Hamilton has claimed his fifth successive pole, he'll face a tough ask with a huge run to the First Turn.
We've become accustomed to a Mercedes one-two, but it's Max Verstappen who starts behind Hamilton today.
Can Hamilton equal Schumacher's record of 91 race wins?
Verstappen on his chances of taking the lead from Hamilton early on
"The tow to Turn Two is massive so I hope we can get a bit of an advantage there.
"We'll see what happens into Turn Two. If nothing happens, I need to focus as much on my own race and be as close as possible to the Mercedes cars."
The pre-race traditions are underway as a the drivers sent out their anti-racism message, while we've also heard the Russian national anthem.
Hamilton under investigation
Well, we have some early drama here in Russia. Hamilton is already under investigation for taking a practice start outside of his designated area.
Hamilton was meant to take the practice start at the beginning of the pit lane; instead, he did it at the end. Bizarre.
And here's what Hamilton said about the tought start ahead
"Ultimately, I'm starting on the soft tyre, which is not good. It's nice being on pole but here is probably the worst place to be on pole, with the draggier cars we have this year.
"So, undoubtedly I'm most likely to get dragged past and both the cars I'm racing against, they are both on the medium, so definitely it's going to make it hard to win the race.
"I generally expect one of these two to come flying by at some point. So, I think I'm just going to focus on my race and just try to run the fastest race I can.
"Obviously I'm on the worst tyre to start on the race, so that's going to be a struggle. I don't know if that puts me onto a two-stop, I don't know, unlikely because the pit lane is too slow, so I'm just going to have to nurse those tyres as far as I can.
"These guys, if they get by, they're going to be pulling away so I'm going to sit down to try to figure out if there's a different kind of race I can do to keep my position."
Hamilton to start on soft tyres.
Hamilton yesterday confirmed he'll be starting on soft tyres, with Verstappen and Bottas on the mediums.
It's a huge run-down down to Turn Two, and with Verstappen to benefit from the slipstream, it would be huge to avoid the overtake.
Here's how the starting grid will start for the race, starting at 12.10pm today!
Qualifying results: Russian Grand Prix
A reminder of how the front of the grid looks...
1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Max Verstappen
3. Valtteri Bottas
4. Sergio Perez
5. Daniel Ricciardo
6. Carlos Sainz
Good morning!
Today could be another history-making day for Lewis Hamilton who is out to match Michael Schumacher's record haul of 91 race wins at the Russian Grand Prix.
Follow all the action with us.