Mercedes within touching distance of "historic" first F1 constructors' world title

Mercedes can clinch the Constructors' World Championship in tomorrow's Russian Grand Prix, for the first time in the marque's history.

Although the Silver Arrows dominated the sport in the mid 1950s, prior to withdrawing following the 1955 Le Mans catastrophe, the Constructors' championship was not in place then. It was introduced only in 1958.

It will also end Red Bull Racing's four-year domination of the Trophy.

The Silver Arrows this year have been very dominant taking 15 of the 16 pole positions and even the odd one out - Massa's pole in Austria - was achieved with a Mercedes engine. They have won 12 of the 15 races, with Daniel Ricciardo taking the other three for Red Bull.

So it brings Mercedes to the position where they have 522 points to Red Bull's 332. So Mercedes clinch it tomorrow, as long as Red Bull don't score 19 points more than Mercedes in the race, which looks unlikely given how poor Red Bull have been this weekend.

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg scored the teams' fifth consecutive front-row lockout and its ninth of 2014. It's Mercedes' 8th 2014 pole position in a row; their best ever run of poles in the F1 World Championship. If they score a 9th 1-2 finish of the season tomorrow it will equal Ferrari’s best from 2004, but will still be one less than the all-time record held by McLaren (10, 1-2 finishes in 1988).

These are historic numbers and it underlines how dominant the team has been and how the two drivers have had a strong sense all year of "creating history", even the bad moments like the Spa collision or the Monaco qualifying controversy.

"It’s quite a historic moment," said Hamilton. "It will be a historic moment for us and for me to be a part of this team and sees its success and be a part of its success. And also, Mercedes-Benz, having never won a Constructors’ Championship, it’s going to be the first time so it’s going to be historic for the team, very special moment when we get there."

Nico Rosberg agreed, "Yes it is. It’s.. one of the two big targets for the team since five years now. I’ve been there since day one and it’s very, very exciting to think that we’re so close to that now. That would be a really, really fantastic feat for us. I hope we manage to do it tomorrow and then maybe we’re able to celebrate it a little bit."

Although Sochi is a somewhat controversial race, with the Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin at odds with the international community over Ukraine and Crimea in particular, clinching the title in the lucrative Russian market for Mercedes Benz would be very positive for the brand.

"It shows to Russia that Mercedes is the best," said Hamilton. "So hopefully tomorrow we’ll stamp that onto the first grand prix here in Russia."

After taking pole Hamilton paid tribute to his Mercedes team for their ongoing development work that has helped keep them in a dominant position ahead of race day at the Russian Grand Prix while his team mate Nico Rosberg was forced to admit that the Englishman has simply been quicker all weekend.

"Pole is a great place to start. Firstly, an amazing job done by the team. (We're) constantly improving and moving forward during the year so thanks to them we're able to be on the front row quite often. It's great to come here and the weather has been amazing and I'm really enjoying driving this track," he said.

"It wasn't the easiest of sessions. Obviously these guys (Williams) were looking quite strong and just hooking up a good lap for some reason wasn't the same as practice. But I'm really grateful that I got the pole here for the first time. It'll be tough tomorrow. There's a long lead down to turn one and we'll find out how that works out.

"It is very cool. Definitely. I think the track surface is great. It's very smooth but it's got a lot of grip. The kerbs.. It's just done really nicely and obviously the surroundings when I land here and I saw the mountains and also being around this Olympic stadium and It's quite an oncredible place.

"Today we have a good turn out for the first Saturday of the race here so I hope that tomorrow is even better and we can put on a good show for them."

Rosberg meanwhile, admitted that Hamilton has had the legs on him all weekend. The Briton has now won the last three Grands Prix and is on a run similar to the one he had between Malaysia and Spain earlier this year. In retrospect Rosberg's rash lunch at him in the opening laps and Spa and the subsequent repercussions seem to have handed the momentum back to Hamilton and Rosberg needs a new plan,

"Every race is important at the moment. We have four to go so they're all just as important," said Rosberg. "Yeah, Lewis is quicker. All weekend, really, so I've been working hard to try to get close but I didn't manage to get closer than those two tenths now so that's the way it is. I need to accept that and also I had the Williams with Valtteri coming up from behind going quick so I needed to keep an eye on that but front row is okay, definitely, and from there everything is possible tomorrow.

"It'll be an interesting race. It's very unique here because there's hardly any tyre degradation because the track is so smooth on the tyres. It's completely different to anything we've seen this year and that makes it very unique and it's been a big challenge set up-wise and everything to get to grips with the track this weekend but I think it's going to be a good race tomorrow.