Valtteri Bottas pipped his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton right at the end of qualifying to take pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix as Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo also finished with his best lap to take fourth on the grid.

Hamilton had taken pole in the first two races of the season and had the leading time, until Bottas beat him on the last lap. It was the Finnish driver’s first ever pole – denying Hamilton his 64th. Hamilton had also taken pole in Bahrain for the past two years.

Bottas clocked a leading time of 1 minute, 28.769 seconds over the 5.4-kilometre track in Sakhir, compared to 1:28.792 for Hamilton.

“Boom. That’s my first one, guys,” Bottas proudly told his team over race radio.

Ricciardo, who had been struggling to match the pace of not only the silver arrows but also Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen saved his best for last.

The Australian put down a 1:26.545 on his last lap to put himself on the second row of the grid with former teammate and Ferrari star Sebastian Vettel.

The German marginally quicker than Ricciardo with a time of 1:29.247.

Their teammates, Kimi Raikkonen and Verstappen fill out the third row of the grid.

Bahrain proved a watershed moment for Renault who got both their cars in the top 10 for the first time in a long time with Nico Hulkenberg in seventh and Jolyon Palmer 10th.

The Williams of Felipe Massa will start from eighth, while Romain Grosjean will start from ninth in his Haas.

It was yet another unhappy evening for McLaren’s Fernando Alonso. The two-time world champion’s McLaren parked in the garage due to a broken power unit and the Spaniard will start from 15th on the grid.