Nico Rosberg claimed pole position for the Russian Grand Prix comfortably, as engine failure sidelined Lewis Hamilton from the qualifying battle for the second Formula 1 race in succession.

Hamilton had a narrow edge over his Mercedes F1 team-mate in the first part of qualifying at Sochi, but was trailing by nearly half a second in Q2 when he suffered a recurrence of the MGU-H failure that ruined his efforts at Shanghai last time out.

That left Hamilton 10th and without a time in Q3, while Rosberg enjoyed a clear path to pole, beating Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari to top spot by more than seven tenths of a second.

Compounding Hamilton’s misery, he faces a trip to the stewards to explain why he failed to follow the proper procedure for rejoining from the Turn 2 run-off area after a Q1 mistake.

Rosberg was able to lap comfortably in the 1m35s in Q2 and Q3. He was on for a better lap at the end of Q3 before locking up his brakes and running off track at the end of the long back straight.

Vettel chipped his way into the low 1m36s, but Ferrari and its updated combustion engine had no answer for Mercedes’ impressive pace.

Vettel will start seventh on account of a penalty for changing his gearbox after Friday practice.

That means Williams driver Valtteri Bottas will enjoy his first front row start since the 2014 German GP, after outpacing the second Ferrari of fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen by 0.127s.

The second Williams of Felipe Massa was fifth fastest, almost half a second adrift of Bottas, while Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull rounded out the top six.

Sergio Perez impressively split Ricciardo from Red Bull team-mate Daniil Kvyat by going seventh fastest.

Max Verstappen’s Toro Rosso lapped 0.124s slower than Kvyat to end up ninth.

A late improvement from Kvyat in the dying moments of Q2 relegated the second Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz Jr to 11th place.

Sainz failed to improve on his final run but remained half a tenth clear of Jenson Button in the better of the two McLaren-Hondas.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was 13th fastest, reckoning a lap that was nearly half a second adrift of Perez in Q2 to be “as good as it gets”.

The second McLaren-Honda of Fernando Alonso was 0.036s slower in 14th, ahead of Haas pairing Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez, who were separated by less than a tenth as Grosjean continued to complain about the unpredictability of his car.

The works Renaults of Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer were more than two tenths away from making the Q2 cut, but separated by less than a tenth in 17th and 18th.

Sauber’s Felipe Nasr lay above the cut-off after his first run in Q1, but he went off at the start of his second and failed to improve his time.

The Brazilian wound up just 0.009s shy of Palmer’s time but well clear of Pascal Wehrlein in the best of the Manor-Mercedes.

The second Sauber of Marcus Ericsson seemed set to avoid a back-of-the-grid start after a last-gasp improvement, but Rio Haryanto hit back with a late show of his own to return the struggling Ericsson to the bottom of the pile.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

Rosberg continues charge to take Russian GP pole by a second