Valtteri Bottas claimed his first pole position of the Formula 1 season as he beat Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in an ultra-close session at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Bottas held a substantial advantage after the first runs in Q3 at the Red Bull Ring as title rivals Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel both made errors.
Bottas improved on his benchmark on his final lap as he clocked a time of 1:03.130 – a new track record at the venue.
Hamilton closed in to emerge as Bottas’ primary rival and finished just 0.019s shy of his team-mate, as Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid for the second successive event.
Vettel recovered to take third position but remains under investigation for allegedly impeding Carlos Sainz Jr. in Q2.
Kimi Raikkonen ensured an all-red second row as he took fourth, while Red Bull was never in contention for pole position, as an attempt for its drivers to tow each other backfired.
Max Verstappen was fifth, with Daniel Ricciardo seventh, as both expressed frustration over the radio regarding the tactics in Q3.
The pair were split by Haas’ Romain Grosjean, who showed strong pace throughout the session, as he seeks to end his 12-race spell without scoring a point.
Grosjean’s Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen was eighth as Renault pair Sainz Jr. and Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10, substantially adrift of the Dane.
Esteban Ocon took 11th position for Force India, ahead of compatriot Pierre Gasly, while Charles Leclerc was 13th.
Leclerc, though, will drop to 18th on the grid on account of a five-place penalty incurred for taking on a new gearbox.
Fernando Alonso at least made it through to Q2 but was only 14th best, his quickest time coming on Softs, after going wide through the final turn on his Ultra Soft run.
Lance Stroll gave Williams a ray of optimism by squeezing into the second knockout session, though he finished over two-tenths adrift of the pack.
Stoffel Vandoorne again dropped out in Q1, edged out of the session by just 0.007s, while Sergio Perez had a rare early exit and took only 17th position in an ultra-close session.
Sergey Sirotkin was 18th for Williams as Brendon Hartley and Marcus Ericsson completed the 20-strong field, the Swede just 1.4s behind Q1 pacesetter Hamilton in the first knockout segment.
Sunday’s 71-lap Austrian Grand Prix will begin at 15:10 local time
