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Bottas edges out home hope Hamilton for dramatic pole at Silverstone

British Grand Prix: In an incredibly close qualifying session at Silverstone, Valtteri Bottas narrowly beat Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to grab pole.

By Opta
Bottas - Cropped

Silverstone, July 13: Valtteri Bottas edged out Lewis Hamilton by just six thousandths of a second to claim a dramatic pole position at the British Grand Prix.

The Mercedes pair responded from a poor showing in Austria to lock out the front row for Sunday's race at Silverstone, with Bottas and the home hope separated by the narrowest of margins.

Charles Leclerc was also in the mix for pole in an extremely tight Q3, but finished 0.079secs behind Bottas to take up third place on the grid.

The Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly claimed fourth and fifth spots respectively, leaving Sebastian Vettel down in sixth as the second Ferrari.

Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris, Alexander Albon and Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10.

"It was very good again, it reminds you why you do this," said Bottas, who trails Hamilton by 31 points in the Formula One drivers' championship.

"It's been pretty close all weekend and [on Saturday] with Lewis - it's good to get a good lap and get pole."

Bottas had shown the best pace of the leading cars on Friday, but it was Hamilton and Leclerc who had topped the timesheets in Q1 and Q2 respectively on Saturday.

The Finn comfortably led the pack again after the first runs of Q3, his track-record time of one minute, 25.093secs putting him clear of Hamilton, but he then had to nervously wait after he failed to improve in his second attempt.

Hamilton, bidding to win the race for a record sixth time, fared notably better than he did in his opener but still fell agonisingly short of Bottas' leading mark.

It then looked like Leclerc was primed to claim pole, but the Ferrari star also came up narrowly short and said on team radio he had made a mistake at the last corner.

Vettel was sixth after the opening runs and could not make an impact on his second effort as he continues to struggle to match the pace of Leclerc this weekend, ending up 0.694secs behind Bottas.

PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) 1:25.093 2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) +0.006s 3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.079s 4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.183s 5. Pierre Gasly (Red Bull) +0.497s 6. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) +0.694s 7. Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) +1.089s 8. Lando Norris (McLaren) +1.131s 9. Alexander Albon (Toro Rosso) +1.252s 10. Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) +1.293s

Story first published: Saturday, July 13, 2019, 20:16 [IST]
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