Hamilton snatches dramatic Monaco GP pole with record lap

Lewis Hamilton snatched a dramatic pole position for Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix with an all-time circuit record lap in the final seconds to outpace Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas by 0.086 seconds.

The defending five-time champion and series leader clocked an unprecedented lap in 1min 10.166sec to end Bottas' run of three successive poles as Mercedes, mourning the death this week of non-executive chairman Niki Lauda, produced a record-equalling 62nd front row lockout.

It was an emotional Hamilton's second pole in Monaco and the 84th of his career as he dug deep in the final seconds to find the speed required to grab the prime grid position from his team-mate.

"Whoooah!" shouted Hamilton on team radio.

"That's what I am talking about...."
"We all take our cars, fast or slow, to the limit and here, at the limit, it's like wrestling a bull. I had an oversteer moment in the Rascasse and I just held on."
Bottas said: "I'm disappointed. I felt after the first lap there were plenty of places to improve, but I had traffic and couldn't get the tyres up to temperature."
"The problem was not the weighbridge and I have had no real answers. It is very difficult to take as we had plenty of time and enough fuel... Now, I must take risks in the race."