Bottas takes pole in Austria

Mercedes's Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas celebrates after taking pole in Spielberg, Austria, on Saturday. Pic/ Getty Images

Valtteri Bottas survived a high-speed spin as he upstaged Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton with a sizzling display on Saturday to claim pole position for Sunday's delayed season-opening Austrian Grand Prix. The Finnish driver outpaced the six-time champion with a best lap in qualifying in one minute and 2.939 seconds and then survived an 'off' into the gravel and a spin on his final lap to remain 0.012 seconds clear of the Briton.

It was Bottas's third pole at the Austrian Grand Prix and the 12th of his career, a feat that followed Hamilton's clean sweep of the three practice sessions on Friday and Saturday morning. "It feels really good - I've missed this feeling," said Bottas. "The qualifying shakes! It's something special when you push the car to the limit and I've been waiting for a long time - we seem to be in our own league."

Hamilton said: "A great job by Valtteri and it's a great start to the season. I think we show year on year that we are the best team - because we are open-minded, keep with the times and nobody is too stubborn to admit they are wrong." Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull, half a second adrift of the two newly-painted 'black arrows' cars whose dominating performance delivered a 65th front row lock out for the team, equalling Ferrari's record.

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates.

Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever