Silverstone: Valtteri Bottas set the fastest time in a hard-fought qualifying session for today’s British Grand Prix, denying Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton a fifth successive pole on home soil by the narrowest of margins.

The Finn set a time of one minute, 25.093 seconds on a cold and grey afternoon at Silverstone, edging Hamilton, who has started his home race from the front for the last four years and was gunning for a seventh overall British pole yesterday, by just 0.006 seconds.