Bottas takes pole for Austrian Grand Prix

Mercedes’s Valtteri Bottas has taken pole position for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.

The Finn edged out championship leader Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, while another Finn, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikonnen will start in third.

Vettel’s title rival Lewis Hamilton will start in eighth on the grid, having been hit with a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gear box change during practice.

Red Bull’s Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo will complete the second row in fourth.

The pole marks the second time Bottas will lead the field from the start of an F1 race, his only previous pole coming back in Bahrain in April. Vettel went on to win that race in the Middle East, but Mercedes have domianted in Austria in recent years, winning every year since 2014, when the Red Bull Ring was added to the scheduele.

“We definitely got the car really nice and stable for qualifying,” he said.

“I was just able to build up the confidence, and this is a track where you need it in high speed corners. On [the] balance, we didn’t really touch the car at all during qualifying, and the laps were getting better and better as a result.

“So as team we have done a great job over the weekend to get the car better and it felt good today.”

“It should be an interesting [and] good fight tomorrow,” he added.

“The target is not less than winning of course; I’m sure Lewis still has a good race ahead, there’s a lot of time to come back and get good points for us as a team, so I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

Austrian Grand Prix grid positions: 1) Bottas 2) Vettel 3) Raikkonen 4) Ricciardo 5) Verstappen 6) Grosjean 7) Perez 8) Hamilton (after penalty is applied) 9) Ocon 10) Sainz.

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