Brendan Lines July 5, 2020 09:30am

Mercedes have remained unbeatable so far in Austria as Valtteri Bottas took his third pole at the Red Bull Ring ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton on Saturday.

Just before Q1 Mercedes mechanics rectified a wiring loom on the gearbox of Bottas’ car, but that did not stop the Fin taking his 12th career pole and first of the 2020 season with a 1:02.939s.

“This feels really good. I missed this feeling – I was shaking after qualifying. It’s something really special to be able to push the car to its limits. We’ve been preparing for this for such a long time now and you never now where you really stand. But our team did such an amazing job, it’s very impressive to see. It’s still very early days, this was only the very first qualifying session of the season, but I’m so impressed by what our team has been able to achieve. A big thank you to everyone in the team, both here at the track and back home at the factories – this is a truly amazing car to drive. I’m very happy with the result today, but it’s tomorrow that counts, so we need to keep our heads down and keep working hard,” he said.

Bottas had been hot on the heels of teammate Hamilton all weekend as Hamilton topped the timing charts across all the free practice sessions for Mercedes.

But despite Bottas’ little venture off track in Q3 it did not affect Hamilton posting a 1:02.951, securing a front row lockout for Mercedes.

Third fastest went to Max Verstappen and Red Bull with a 1:03.477, Verstappen will begin Red Bull’s home race on medium tyres with the soft-shod Mercedes ahead.

The big surprise was McLaren’s Lando Norris who came flying home in the closing stages of Q3 to post a 1:03.626 to split the Red Bulls, pushing Verstappen’s teammate Alex Albon back to fifth.

“I’m very happy, this was my best qualifying position ever, so it’s a big achievement for myself but also for the team. It’s the best team result for six years, so it’s good to see the progress we’ve made,” Norris said after qualifying.

Racing Point’s Sergio Perez who has been quick all weekend, matched Albon’s time of 1.03.868 in Q3, but Perez will start sixth because he set the time after Albon completed his lap.

The misery continued for Ferrari, astonishingly Sebastian Vettel did not progress to Q3 finishing just outside the top ten in 11th, “Of course it’s a surprise,” Vettel said — evidently Ferrari may have underestimated the pace of its rivals.

Vettel’s teammate Charles Leclerc managed to save face qualifying seventh but repeating last year’s podium result may be a tall order for the Monegasque who is nearly a second off both the Mercedes.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo looked on song in Q3 but his final run was interrupted by yellow flags as Bottas went off track in the closing stages, the Aussie will start 10th, but vows to ‘make it happen’ come the race after showing good pace in FP3.

Alpha Tauri continue to improve but will have to settle for 12th and 13th fastest respectively for Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kyvat.

Haas made progress with their timed stints on the soft compound tyre in Q1 and Q2, but could only manage 15th and 16th for Grosjean and Magnussen respectively.

Williams’ George Russell exceeded the teams expectations qualifying 17th, the closest the Wantage team has been to being on pure pace, Nicholas Latifi will start 20th in his debut race after a Turn 1 incident saw him spin losing some track time in FP3.

Traffic in Q1 hurt Kimi Raikkonen’s chances of progressing any further up the order than 19th, his teammate Antonio Giovanazzi will start from 18th.

The Austrian Grand Prix begins 23:10 AEST tonight

Full qualifying results below:

Pos	Num	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:04.111	1:03.015	1:02.939
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:04.198	1:03.096	1:02.951
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:04.024	1:04.000	1:03.477
4	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Renault	1:04.606	1:03.819	1:03.626
5	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:04.661	1:03.746	1:03.868
6	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:04.543	1:03.860	1:03.868
7	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:04.500	1:04.041	1:03.923
8	55	Carlos Sainz	McLaren Renault	1:04.537	1:03.971	1:03.971
9	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:04.309	1:03.955	1:04.029
10	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:04.556	1:04.023	1:04.239
11	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:04.554	1:04.206
12	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri Honda	1:04.603	1:04.305
13	26	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri Honda	1:05.031	1:04.431
14	31	Esteban Ocon	Renault	1:04.933	1:04.643
15	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:05.094	1:04.691
16	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:05.164
17	63	George Russell	Williams Mercedes	1:05.167
18	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:05.175
19	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:05.224
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Mercedes	1:05.757