Bottas beats Hamilton to pole for F1’s 70th Anniversary GP
Valtteri Bottas pipped Lewis Hamilton to claim pole position for Formula 1’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix in an epic qualifying battle.
Hamilton had sat on provisional pole after the first Q3 runs but Bottas turned the tables on his Mercedes teammate with a last-gasp lap to snatch pole by just 0.063.
Bottas’ effort ended Hamilton’s recent streak of poles and denied the six-times world champion the chance to land an eight pole at Silverstone, following on his most recent at last weekend’s British Grand Prix.
It marks Bottas’ first pole since the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix and it is the Finn’s 13th pole of his F1 career, coming just two days after penning a new contract extension with Mercedes for 2021.
Nearly a full-second back from the dominant Mercedes, Nico Hulkenberg turned in a stunning lap to claim third place on the Silverstone grid as he continues to deputise for Sergio Perez at Racing Point, with the German sealing his best qualifying result since the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was unable to outpace Hulkenberg’s Racing Point as he took fourth, with the Dutchman the only driver to run the Hard compound in Q2, meaning he will start the race on Pirelli’s most durable tyre, potentially handing him a strategic advantage.
Lance Stroll could not match his Racing Point teammate's pace as he wound up sixth ahead of Pierre Gasly, who once again impressed for AlphaTauri to secure a strong seventh.
Gasly out-qualified Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and Alex Albon, the man who replaced the Frenchman at Red Bull as the under-pressure Anglo-Thai racer made it into Q3 for the first time in three races.
Lando Norris completes the top 10 in his McLaren, finishing 1.624s off the pace.
Esteban Ocon missed out on a spot in Q3 by just over a tenth but the Renault driver is at risk of picking up a three-place grid drop for blocking George Russell in Q1.
Russell was forced to back out of his first flying attempt when he came across Ocon’s slow-moving RS20 on an outlap, with the Frenchman admitting over team radio that he felt he was likely to receive a penalty.
Sebastian Vettel’s Silverstone struggles continued as he failed to make it through to the top-10 shootout after getting “all there was” out of his Ferrari for a lowly P12, while McLaren was unable to get both its cars into Q3 for the first time this season as Carlos Sainz wound up 13th.
Haas driver Romain Grosjean was 14th, ahead of Russell, who sealed his fourth consecutive Q2 appearance for Williams and set his best time of qualifying on the Soft tyre.
AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat was knocked out in Q1 after his lap time was deleted for track limits abuse, a mistake which proved costly for the Russian as he could only manage the 16th-best time, ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
Nicholas Latifi was unable to match his teammate’s achievement of making it out of Q1 but outpaced Antonio Giovinazzi by just 0.003s to lift himself off the back row of the grid.
The two Alfa Romeos of Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen complete the grid on the back row as the two slowest drivers in qualifying.
FULL QUALIFYING RESULTS FOR F1'S 70TH ANNIVERSARY GRAND PRIX AT SILVERSTONE.
