Valtteri Bottas beats Lewis Hamilton to Austrian Grand Prix pole

Mercedes-GP again have the edge in qualifying, with Sebastian Vettel taking third spot for Ferrari

F1 Formula One - Austrian Grand Prix - Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Austria - June 30, 2018   Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas in action during qualifying   REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
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Valtteri Bottas took his first pole position of the season to lead a Mercedes-GP one-two in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.

The Finn's lap time of 1 minute, 03.130 seconds was enough to beat championship-leading teammate Lewis Hamilton to top spot at the Red Bull Ring.

It is the second successive year that Bottas will start on pole in Austria and he will hope for a repeat of last year's race outcome when he triumphed.

Hamilton was 0.019 seconds adrift, but the four-time world champion has the consolation of starting one place ahead of title rival Sebastian Vettel, who he leads by 14 points going into the ninth round of the season on Sunday.

Vettel's Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen was fourth, with Romain Grosjean a surprise fifth in his Haas, beating both the Red Bull Racing cars of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

Sunday's 71-lap race starts at 5.10pm UAE time.

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