F1: Bottas Stuns Hamilton in Silverstone Qualifying

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Valtteri Bottas narrowly took pole position in Silverstone for the 2019 British Grand Prix.

Bottas pipped his teammate Lewis Hamilton, in what was a thrilling qualifying session. The Mercedes duo and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were only by 0.079 seconds at the chequered flag.

“Feels good [to claim pole],” Bottas said after qualifying.

“It’s been pretty close all weekend. It’s not easy to get a good lap together. I’m happy to be on top.”

In contrast, Hamilton admitted to an unforced error which proved to be costly:

“Ultimately not good enough. A mistake on my first lap and the second one got away from us,” the Briton said.

The Finn beat Hamilton by just six thousandths of a second to take his fourth pole position of the season.

Evenly Poised between Ferrari and Red Bull

After a strong opening to qualifying, Ferrari looked to poised to set the pace in Q3.

Unfortunately for the Italian marquee, it wasn’t to be as Leclerc could only manage the third fastest.

Charles Leclerc narrowly missed out on Pole Position in qualifying for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix. Image sourced from @ScuderiaFerrari via Twitter.

Leclerc: “Mercedes were very, very quick… third is the best we could do today, so I’m happy with it.”

Sebastian Vettel could only manage sixth place in the second Ferrari, and was nearly seven-tenths down on his team-mate.

Vettel ended up behind both Red Bull’s, and will line up on the third row alongside Pierre Gasly, who was fifth fastest behind Max Verstappen.

However, Ferrari opted for a different strategy as they decided to set their quickest lap in Q2 on the soft tyre.

Subsequently, they will start the race on the soft compound, whereas Mercedes and Red Bull who will start on the preferred mediums.

Ricciardo and Norris lead the Midfield

Renault managed to find some extra pace following their lacklustre weekend in Austria. Daniel Ricciardo cemented his place as ‘best of the rest’, beating McLaren’s Lando Norris to seventh.

Lando Norris out-qualified McLaren team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. for the seventh time at Silverstone. Image sourced from @McLarenF1 via Twitter.

Norris’ team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. failed to progress into the final stage of qualifying and will start from thirteenth.

Because of this, Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon and the other Renault of Nico Hulkenberg made it into Q3. They’ll start from ninth and tenth respectively.

While Albon impressed, Daniil Kvyat struggled, as the Russian found himself in the drop zone and out after Q1. He was joined him by Williams’ George Russell and Robert Kubica, Lance Stroll’s Racing Point and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.

Romain Grosjean managed to take his Haas into Q2, despite running his Australia spec car. The drastic decision was made in a bid to overcome the team’s lack of race pace which has plagued their campaign.

It was a less than ideal session for Alfa Romeo, as both cars failed to make it into the Q3 by just over a tenth of a second.

Antonio Giovinazzi could only manage 11th place for Alfa Romeo. Image sourced from @alfaromeoracing via Twitter.

However, on the back of claiming his first championship point in Austria, it was Antonio Giovinazzi showing his worth. The Italian got the better of Kimi Raikkonen to claim 11th by just 0.025 seconds.

Final Qualifying Classification:

@F1

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