Bottas beats Vettel to Austrian GP pole
The Finnish driver upstaged both title protagonists on Saturday by claiming his second pole position for Mercedes in a tense qualifying session for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.
Bottas claims second pole
Valtteri Bottas upstaged both title protagonists on Saturday by claiming his second pole position for Mercedes in a tense qualifying session for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix. The Finn clocked a best lap of one minute and 4.251 seconds to outpace championship leader Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari by four hundredths of a second.
Disarray
Briton Lewis Hamilton, who trails Vettel by 14 points in the title race, was third fastest in the second Mercedes, but will start the race from eighth on the grid due to a five-place penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. The session ended in some disarray when Frenchman Romain Grosjean stopped his Haas out on the track to bring out a series of yellow flags that prevented any final fast laps.
'The car was getting better and better'
'I enjoyed it today and the car was getting better and better,' said Bottas. 'I had a decent lap and I am looking forward to Sunday - and hope Lewis and I can do a great job for the team'. Vettel said: 'I was hoping for the last run, but then it was a bit of an anti-climax with the yellow flags,' while Hamilton stated how: 'Of course, I would have loved to improve my lap, but it just wasn't meant to be today.'
