Portuguese GP Qualifying: Lewis Hamilton Narrowly Beat Valterri Bottas To Win Season's Ninth Pole

Lewis Hamilton narrowly beat his teammate Valterri Bottas to clinch the ninth pole of the season dead in the last lap in another Mercedes one-two finish at Algrave international circuit. 

Bottas was in provisional pole before the six-time F1 champion dropped him to second place by leading the time scale 0.101 sec quickest. Hamilton recovered from trailing in third place behind the Finn driver and Red Bull's Max Verstappen to finish fastest in 1:16.165s. 

"We have a great car but you have to drive the nuts off it to pull out a lap," said Hamilton. "Valterri has been so quick and I have been digging and digging to try to find the extra time. 

The world champion drove on slower medium tires, and likewise Bottas, who narrowly missed out on claiming his fourth pole of the season. Meanwhile, it was the Briton's 94th record pole win. 

Verstappen finished the Mercedes duo in the third position and following the Red Bull driver in the fourth place was Charles Leclerc who finished 0.186s behind Dutchman. 

Leclerc's teammate Sebastian Vettel finished down the standings in 15th position as he failed to make it past the top 10 for the second time a qualifying session. However, he is set to leave Ferrari at the end of the season to join Aston Martin.