Valterri Bottas snatches pole from Lewis Hamilton as F1 returns to Imola

Valterri Bottas on Saturday snatched pole position from Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in what was a dramatic late lap in qualifying at Imola. The Finn, 77 points behind series leader and six-time champion Hamilton, grabbed the pole position by a tenth of a second.

Hamilton, who was the quickest in practice on Saturday morning, had been on top in most of the qualifying season, took provisional pole during his first run in Q3 only for Bottas to overtake him in the final seconds.

Max Verstappen finished third for Red Bull ahead of Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly, Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon of Red Bull.

Charles Leclerc took seventh for Ferrari with Daniil Kvyat eight in the second Alpha Tauri ahead of two McLarens of Norris and Sainz.
Bottas final-second pole qualification brought him his fourth pole of the season and his 15th career pole as Mercedes claimed another front row ahead of the race in Imola in which they can complete an unprecedented seventh consecutive championship.

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"It’s never easy to get pole position, but I really enjoyed it around this track,” said Bottas.

"I knew I had to improve on my last lap, so I found those little gains – and I had the shakes after the final run, which is always a good sign!”

Hamilton praised his team-mate.

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"Valtteri did a great job and it was a pretty poor lap from myself, but you can’t always get it right. This track is unbelievable, but I’m pretty certain it will be a boring race tomorrow – just a train after Turn One.”

Verstappen said: “It was tricky, but P3 is not bad really – though I expected to be a bit closer to the Mercedes.”

(With inputs from AFP)