Valtteri Bottas denies Lewis Hamilton 100th career pole position at Portuguese GP

Mercedes driver beats teammate to top spot by .007 seconds

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas clocked the fastest time during the qualifying session for Portuguese GP at the Algarve International Circuit near Portimao on Saturday. AP

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton after the qualifying session for the Portuguese GP. AFP

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc during qualifying on Saturday. AP

Max Verstappen of Red Bull at the Portuguese GP qualifying. Getty

Max Verstappen during qualifying on Saturday. Getty

Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel during qualifying. Reuters

Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel at the Portuguese GP. AP

Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas at the Portuguese GP. AP

Valtteri Bottas took pole position for the Portuguese Grand Prix and denied Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton a record-extending 100th Formula One pole on Saturday.

Bottas clinched the 17th of his career and a much-needed one after he crashed in the last race and scored no points.

“It’s a good feeling to be on pole, it’s been quite a while,” Bottas said. “I’ve worked very hard this week.”

He was .007 seconds ahead of Hamilton and .34 ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, making him the third different pole-sitter in three races. Hamilton and Verstappen earned the others.

“It definitely puts a smile on my face. I’ve been strong all weekend and it makes me really happy to put it all together,” Bottas said. “Qualifying hasn’t been my strong point in the first two races.”

Hamilton is aiming for his 97th win on Sunday, while Bottas goes for his 17th victory, and Verstappen his 12th.

Verstappen looked in contention to clinch a fifth career pole after impressively topping the third and final practice on Saturday, but he made a small mistake in the last part of qualifying when he went outside of the track limits and failed to set a time. That meant his lap time was deleted and gave him only one more shot at the two Mercedes cars.

“It was a really difficult session to get grip, the car just snapped away from me and went wide,” Verstappen said. “It’s been really hit and miss anyway, the whole weekend. The layout of the track is amazing but the grip is not good.”

Hamilton also said the track, which was relaid with new tarmac for last year’s race, was very awkward to negotiate.

“It was a difficult session for everyone, it’s windy here and quite slippery,” the British veteran said. “Valtteri did a great job.”

As late afternoon temperatures cooled in Portugal’s Algarve region, it was a bad qualifying run for McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian has seven career wins but was among the five drivers eliminated from Q1, while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez went off track at Turn 4 and into gravel but had already done enough to get into Q2.

Hamilton led Q2 from Bottas and McLaren’s Lando Norris, while two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso was among the five to go out.

Earlier, Verstappen posted the fastest time in the third and final practice, followed by Hamilton, Bottas, and Perez.

Mercedes topped the first two practices on Friday, through Bottas and then Hamilton.

The Portugal GP is the third race of the season.

Hamilton leads the championship by one point from Verstappen. Hamilton’s lead is courtesy of him taking a bonus point for the fastest lap at an incident-packed Emilia-Romagna GP, which Verstappen won. Hamilton won the season-opener in Bahrain.

Bottas needs to find form after a poor race two weeks ago at Imola, where he was involved in a crash with Williams driver George Russell after an overtaking move went wrong. Bottas dropped to fifth place in the standings behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in what could be his final season with Mercedes.

“For the mental process, I just put those mistakes to one side,” Bottas said.

Earlier, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has said he anticipates Verstappen's relationship with Hamilton will boil over as F1's two biggest stars lock horns for the world championship.

Hamilton heads into Sunday's Portuguese Grand Prix holding a slender one-point advantage over Verstappens.

A fortnight ago at a rain-hit Imola, a fast-starting Verstappen and Hamilton banged wheels at the opening corner causing the latter to run off the road.

While the two enjoy a relatively warm relationship, Horner does not expect the niceties to last.

"Max and Lewis are the two standout drivers at the moment, and you have seen that in the opening two races of the year," Horner said.

"Rivalries in sport have always been a big attraction, and sometimes a polarising thing, too, but everybody wants to see these two fighting it out, week in week out.

"You can see it got pretty close already in the first two races, so over a 23-race season at some point it wouldn't be unpredictable to say something could happen between the two of them.