Silverstone, Aug 8 Valterri Bottas beat his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to pole with a sensational final lap while Nico Hulkenberg, who is filling in for Sergio Perez at Racing Point, took a remarkable third place at Silverstone in qualifying ahead of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix. It is the first time since the 2016 Austrian GP that Hulkenberg has managed to finish in the top three at the end of qualification.
Bottas managed a time of 1:25.154 while Hamilton was marginally behind him with 1:25.217. Hulkenberg did a time of 1:26.082, beating his teammate Lance Stroll in all segments of qualifying. Stroll finished sixth with a time of 1:27.187.
For Bottas, this is the 13th pole position as he gets some much needed momentum in the fight for the Championship. The Finn has won the last two races he has started from P1.
Bottas set the pace in every single segment of qualifying, but was on the backfoot after the first runs in Q3 as Hamilton sauntered to the top of the timesheets. But Bottas refused to be rattled and while Hamilton improved again on his next effort, this time the Finn had an answer.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen finished fourth while his former teammate Daniel Ricciardo managed to equal Renault's best position of the year at fifth.
Charles Leclerc only managed to get eighth and with Sebastian Vettel not going past Q2, this is Ferrari's worst performance at Silverstone since 2014.
Alexander Albon ended up half a second behind teammate Verstappen, but he did at least comfortably make it through to Q3 this weekend after an early exit last time out. Lando Norris closed out the top 10 for McLaren.
( With inputs from IANS )