Valtteri Bottas claimed his first career pole position on Saturday when he beat his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton with a well-controlled lap in Saturday’s qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The 26-year-old Finn, who joined the team as replacement for retired 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg, made the most of a poor final lap by the Briton to claim the prime starting position for Sunday’s race.
Valtteri Bottas is the first Finn to take pole position since Heikki Kovalainen at the 2008 British Grand Prix
— BBCF1 (@bbcf1) April 15, 2017
🇫🇮➡️ https://t.co/JklwFChHYd pic.twitter.com/eHeVM3pMPt
Congrats @ValtteriBottas 1st pole! Great lap. Happy for all you guys at merc that Valtteri is going well
— Nico Rosberg (@nico_rosberg) April 15, 2017
Congratulations @ValtteriBottas - first pole ever. Flat out!
— Mika Häkkinen (@F1MikaHakkinen) April 15, 2017
"It's great when nice things happen to nice people"
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 15, 2017
Generous words from @LewisHamilton after @ValtteriBottas pips him to pole#BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/Nt8xzh7mcN
PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION: END OF QUALIFYING
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 15, 2017
First ever #F1 pole for @ValtteriBottas 🙌#BahrainGP 🇧🇭 pic.twitter.com/Hx3QZrvWQt