Valtteri Bottas Denies Lewis Hamilton Pole Position On F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton will not be starting in the pole on F1 70th anniversary Grand Prix as his teammate Valtteri Bottas pipped him to claim the position in Mercedes one-two finish at the qualifying session in Silverstone. 

Through Q1 and Q3, the Finn driver finished in the lead over his teammate who really fought hard in  Q3 and was yet clearly beaten to emerged as the second-fastest.   

Bottas stunned his teammate Hamilton who was in provisional pole with an incredible pace in the last lap of Q3 and leaped to the first fastest claiming +0.63s time lead over the six-time champion. It will be Bottas' 13th pole start at the final on Sunday. 

"Amazing car to drive. It's so quick," said Bottas who trails Hamilton in driver standings by 30 points. "Of course mentally when you are starting from pole you can only aim to win. The pace is there."

Ferrari exiting driver Sebastian Vettel could not make the top 10, finishing five places behind his teammate Charles Leclerc who was seventh fastest. 

Racing Point's Nico Hulkenburg put up a strong contest during the qualifying and pipped Red Bull's Max Verstappen to be third fastest. He is standing for Sergio Perez who was ruled out for contracting coronavirus. In the fifth was Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo followed by Racing Point's Lance Stroll.