Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has beaten Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to take pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix.
It was the second pole of Finnish driver Bottas’ career, and both have been since joining Mercedes this season.
This pole was on the Spielberg track where Bottas secured his first podium finish three years ago, coming third when driving for Williams.
“The laps were getting better and better. It should be a good fight tomorrow,” said Bottas, who is third in the title race but trails championship leader Vettel by 42 points.
“I’m sure Lewis (Hamilton) still has a lot of time to come back and get points for the team.”
Hamilton, second in the championship behind Vettel, qualified in third place but will start from eighth because of a five-place grid penalty.
That means Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen moves up from fourth to third and he will share the second row with Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo.
It is another blow for Hamilton, who took the grid penalty for an unauthorized gearbox change.
The Briton trails Vettel by 14 points after eight races, with both winning three times.
Asked if he could win Sunday’s race, a downbeat Hamilton said, “It’s not really on my mind at the moment.”
He added that the race is more likely to be a case of “damage limitation.”
But Vettel did not rule out Hamilton’s chances of challenging on Sunday.
“We’ll see, it’s a long race,” the German Vettel said. “We have to look after our own race.”
He felt he should have pushed his car a bit harder.
“Not quick enough but I was happy, the car was really good,” said Vettel after missing out on a 48th career pole.
“It’s a great track, really enjoyable with a lot of high-speed corners.”
Pushing hard to get a quicker final lap, Max Verstappen span his Red Bull into the gravel.
The Dutch driver finished sixth but will start fifth on the Red Bull Ring alongside the Haas of Romain Grosjean.
Hamilton will split Force India’s feuding duo of Sergio Perez, seventh, and Esteban Ocon in ninth with Torro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz 10th.
