Bottas takes pole as Mercedes lock out front row

Valtteri Bottas upstaged his team-mate Lewis Hamilton on Saturday when he secured pole position as Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid for Sunday's British Grand Prix.

The Finn, who is 31 points adrift of defending world champion Hamilton in this year's title race, clocked a track record fastest lap in one minute and 25.093 seconds to outpace the local hero by just 0.006 seconds.

"It was really good and it reminds me of why we do this," said a smiling Bottas after securing his first British pole position and tenth of his career.

"It's been really close with Lewis all weekend and I am really happy to get such a good lap and pole."
Hamilton, who is hunting a record sixth victory in his home event, said: "Congratulations to Valtteri -- he did a really good job. It wasn't quite good enough... But this is the best Grand Prix of the year because of the energy this crowd and all these people bring."
Leclerc said: "I think Mercedes turned up the engine a little bit and they were so good in the corners, which we know we need to work on."