Bottas takes British GP pole

Valtteri Bottas upstaged his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, yesterday when he secured pole position as Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid for Sunday’s British Grand Prix.

The Finn, who is 31 points adrift of defending world champion Hamilton in this year’s title race, clocked a track record fastest lap in one minute and 25.093 seconds to outpace the local hero by just 0.006 seconds. “It was really good and it reminds me of why we do this,” said a smiling Bottas after securing his first British pole position and tenth of his career.

“It’s been really close with Lewis all weekend and I am really happy to get such a good lap and pole.” Hamilton, who is hunting a record sixth victory in his home event, said: “Congratulations to Valtteri -– he did a really good job. It wasn’t quite good enough... But this is the best Grand Prix of the year because of the energy this crowd and all these people bring.” It was Mercedes’ 64th front-row lockout of the grid for a Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc of Ferrari was third, just 0.079 seconds adrift of Bottas, ahead of Max Verstappen and his Red Bull teammate Pierre Gasly with four-time champion Sebastian Vettel sixth in the second Ferrari. Leclerc said: “I think Mercedes turned up the engine a little bit and they were so good in the corners, which we know we need to work on.”

Daniel Ricciardo was seventh for Renault ahead of rookies Lando Norris of McLaren and Alexander Albon of Toro Rosso. Nico Hulkenberg was 10th in the second Renault.

Two weeks after the heatwave conditions in the Styrian Alps, the session began in cool and overcast conditions in front of packed grandstands with a little hint of sunshine. The track temperature fell to 28 degrees, around 30 below that recorded in Austria.