Brilliant Bottas beats Hamilton for maiden F1 pole in Bahrain
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Valtteri Bottas scored his maiden pole position in Formula 1 during qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday night, edging out Lewis Hamilton in the final Q3 battle.
Bottas trailed Hamilton in both Q1 and Q2, but was able to get within half a tenth of his three-time champion team-mate following their first runs in Q3.
Bottas improved with his final effort, turning in a lap of 1:28.769 to go 0.023 seconds faster than Hamilton's benchmark. As the Briton made a mistake on his final lap and failed to improve, Bottas was able to celebrate his first pole in F1 in just his third appearance for Mercedes.
Ferrari failed to put up a fight to Mercedes at the front of the pack, with Sebastian Vettel finishing almost half a second off pole in third place. Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth for Red Bull ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari, with Max Verstappen following in sixth place.
Nico Hulkenberg led Renault's charge in seventh on an impressive day for the French marque as both its drivers made the top 10. Jolyon Palmer will start Sunday's race from P10 behind Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean.
Daniil Kvyat was left ruing a mistake on his final Q2 lap as he narrowly missed out on a place in the top 10, qualifying 11th after running wide in the final sector. Lance Stroll was also unable to make it through, his lap good enough for P12 in the Williams.
Pascal Wehrlein's first qualifying appearance in Sauber colours was an impressive one as he finished 13th, proving he is back to fitness after missing the opening two rounds of the year. Esteban Ocon wound up 14th for Force India, citing a lack of grip on his final Q2 lap as he finished two seconds off the pace.
Fernando Alonso led McLaren's charge once again in qualifying, making it through to Q2 despite the deficiencies with the Honda power unit. The Spaniard ultimately qualified 15th, failing to post a time in Q2 after an issue with his engine that may result in a grid penalty. Team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was eliminated in Q1 for the third race in a row, finishing 17th.
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Carlos Sainz Jr. was a surprise knock-out in Q1 after a loss of power on his final lap meant he finished 16th. Sergio Perez was another name not expected to feature in the lower reaches of the classification, with the Force India driver finishing 18th after yellow flags stopped him getting in a late lap. Sauber's Marcus Ericsson was P19, with Kevin Magnussen propping up the order for Haas in P20, having also lost the chance to complete a final run.
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