Championship leader Lewis Hamilton put his Mercedes on pole position for the first Russian Grand Prix in Sochi on Saturday with team mate and title rival Nico Rosberg having to settle for second.
Lewis Hamilton's lap of one minute 25.892 seconds is a track record at the Silverstone circuit.
The France-Austria-Britain sequence of races poses a fresh logistical challenge for teams hitherto committed only to back-to-back weekends, with the 21-round season hurrying to the halfway point.
Nico Rosberg crossed the line a mammoth 37.7 seconds ahead of German compatriot Sebastian Vettel, who recovered after colliding with his Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen at the first corner, to claim his third win from three races this season.
Hamilton, Bottas's team mate, started in eighth place after a grid penalty triggered by an unscheduled gearbox change and finished fourth.
Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes suffered a rare mechanical failure on Friday as Formula One teams wrapped up pre-season testing in Barcelona with Ferrari back on top of the timesheets.
'It's a great job by the team. Usually in the first day you don't get that many laps so I'm really happy'
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, winner of 52 races, has gone more than a year since he tasted victory at last year's Belgian race.
The next time the four-time world champion will get behind the wheel will be for first Friday practice at Melbourne's Albert Park on March 23.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton won his home British Grand Prix for a record sixth time on Sunday to stretch his lead over Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas to 39 points.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Vettel's closest title rival with a 46 point gap to make up, qualified fifth and behind Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday to increase his lead over Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg to 28 points with eight races remaining.
Lewis Hamilton landed an early psychological blow ahead of Formula One's Abu Dhabi title showdown by lapping faster than Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in both Friday practice sessions.
Montreal-born Lance Stroll, who celebrated his 18th birthday on October 29 and has yet to pass his driving test, will be the first Canadian F1 racer since 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who won his title at Williams and retired in 2006.
The Finn lapped the six-km Baku street circuit in one minute, 40.495 seconds, just 0.059 seconds faster than team mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton.
Nico Rosberg denied world champion team mate Lewis Hamilton a fifth pole position in a row by seizing the top slot for Mercedes at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday.
Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix will be the 1,000th race of the Formula One world championship since the first at Silverstone in 1950.
Mercedes opened their Formula One season by dominating practice at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday, with Nico Rosberg edging his world champion team mate Lewis Hamilton in both sessions at Albert Park.
Lewis Hamilton took a huge stride towards a fourth Formula One title on Sunday with victory in an incident-packed Singapore Grand Prix after Ferrari title rival Sebastian Vettel crashed out at the start.
Six-times world champion Lewis Hamilton and his team will take centre stage, hoping for another year of dominance after winning both titles for the past six years and ending up fastest in winter testing. Ferrari can be trusted to provide plenty of headlines with four-times champion Sebastian Vettel fighting to reassert himself at the team after being outshone by quick newcomer Leclerc, a double winner in 2019.
Formula One's first pre-season test ended in Jerez with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen fastest.
Nico Rosberg beat title favourite Lewis Hamilton to pole position for the decisive Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix on Saturday as the dominant Mercedes team mates locked out the front row in qualifying.
Formula One has banned from next week's Singapore Grand Prix all radio communications that help improve the performance of the car or driver in a move that could add another twist to the title battle between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton collected his champion's trophy at a glittering gala in Paris after ending the year in touching distance of Michael Schumacher's records for wins and titles.
Finland's Valtteri Bottas seized the first Formula One victory of his career at the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday after jumping both Ferraris at the start and then holding his nerve over the tense closing laps.
The four times world champion is enjoying his best start to a season since he was at Red Bull in 2011, leading Lewis Hamilton by seven points after two wins and a second place from the first three races.
Lewis Hamilton led every lap from pole position to chequered flag, banging in a fastest lap for good measure to emphasise his supremacy
Lewis Hamilton took a big step towards clinching his fifth Formula One title after putting his Mercedes on pole position at the U.S. Grand Prix on Saturday with Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel starting fifth.
Lewis Hamilton won the Mexican Grand Prix for Mercedes after a first-lap scare on Sunday but the Briton will have to wait another week to wrap up his sixth Formula One world championship. Hamilton's 10th win of the season, and 83rd of his career, was also a 100th for Mercedes as a constructor.
Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel limbered up for a Japanese Grand Prix that could bring him a fourth successive title on Sunday with the fastest time in Friday practice.
Formula One world champions past and present paid their respects to Jules Bianchi and mourned one of their own at the French driver's funeral on Tuesday.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position for Mercedes on Sunday to go into the August break with a 24-point lead over Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel.
Nico Rosberg beat Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton for the first time this season and cut the Formula One world champion's lead to 20 points with a commanding victory in the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton, once the young sensation of Formula One, is starting to feel his age as a new generation of drivers sweeps into the sport and old hands like Jenson Button and Felipe Massa head for the exit.
Lewis Hamilton won his home British Grand Prix for the third year in a row on Sunday with Mercedes team mate and title rival Nico Rosberg finishing second but under a stewards' investigation.
The German, winner of the season's first two races, had been second before coming in for a fresh set of tyres while Hamilton won with one stop from pole position.
The win also set a record, one that Hamilton had previously shared with seven times champion Michael Schumacher, of 41 wins from pole position.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday with Mercedes team mate and overall leader Nico Rosberg set to start seventh after a grid penalty. Force India's Nico Hulkenberg joined the Briton on the front row, only his second career top-two start, although the German was under investigation by stewards for a possible flag infringement.
Mexican Sergio Perez qualified second for Force India but will drop five places due to an unscheduled gearbox change after he crashed in final practice on the Baku street circuit.
The German was joined on the front row of the grid by reigning world champion and closest rival Lewis Hamilton, in a Mercedes.
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