Bottas Narrowly Tops Hamilton For British Grand Prix Pole
Lewis Hamilton made a slight mistake on his first lap in Q3 which opened the door for his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas to steal the pole in Hamilton’s home race. Bottas, turned in a lap of 1:25.093-seconds in his No. 77 Mercedes to earn the pole for Sunday’s British Grand Prix by just 0.006-seconds.
That’s the slimmest margin between first and second in over a decade in Formula One.
It was also Mercedes’ sixth straight pole in Silverstone as Hamilton was close to earning a record seventh pole position on the 3.66-mile road course. He’ll have to go for his sixth career win in his native land from the second starting spot in his No. 44 Mercedes.
Hamilton, qualified with an official time of 1:25.099-seconds.
Rolling off third will be Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The second year driver circled the track in Q3 with a top time of 1:25.172-seconds in his No. 16 Ferrari.
As luck would have it, his main rival now in Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen (1:25.276-seconds) will start alongside in fourth in his No. 33 Honda.
Verstappen’s RBR teammate of Pierre Gasly (1:25.590-seconds) rounded out the top five.
British Grand Prix Starting Lineup
Row 1: Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton
Row 2: Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen
Row 3: Pierre Gasly, Sebastian Vettel
Row 4: Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris R
Row 5: Alex Albon R, Nico Hulkenberg
Row 6: Antonio Giovinazzi R, Kimi Raikkonen
Row 7: Carlos Sainz Jr., Romain Grosjean
Row 8: Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnusen
Row 9: Daniil Kvyat, Lance Stroll
Row 10: George Russell R, Robert Kubica