Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas claimed pole position 2017 Austrian Grand Prix, narrowly beating Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
The Finnish driver was quickest after the first runs with a 1:04.251, setting a new quickest time ever around the Red Bull Ring.
However, late drama for Romain Grosjean and Max Verstappen brought out the yellow flags, meaning drivers were unable to improve their times.
That locked Bottas into pole, ahead of Vettel, with Lewis Hamilton struggling a little in Q3 and ending the session third fastest.
However, a gearbox change penalty drops him to eighth, and the British driver set his best Q2 time on the supersoft tyres – which he will start on.
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth in Q3, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Verstappen, who spun off at Turn 8 in the final moments. They will move up a spot due to Hamilton's penalty, as will Grosjean and Sergio Perez. Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz Jr complete the top 10.
A number of late improvements changed the Q2 order in the final moments, with Nico Hulkenberg narrowly falling into the drop zone ahead of McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne.
Daniil Kvyat joined them in 14th place, while Kevin Magnussen made it through to Q2 but failed to set a timed lap after a suspension failure on an exit kerb in Q1.
Jolyon Palmer improved on his final lap in the opening segment of qualifying but missed out on escaping the drop zone by just 0.029 seconds, and was the first to be eliminated.
Williams’ struggles continued with both Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll ending up in the drop zone, after scruffy final runs. Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein were the slowest Q1 runners.
