PORTIMAO: Lewis Hamilton missed a 100th career pole position by just seven-thousandths of a second against Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas in qualifying for the Portuguese Grand Prix on Saturday.
Bottas clocked 1 minute 18.348 seconds around the 4.684km Autodromo Internacional do Algarve for his first pole of the season and 17th overall, with Hamilton on 1:18.355, DPA reports. Red Bull's Max Verstappen had to settle for third ahead of his team-mate Sergio Perez, after having the fastest lap in Q3 wiped out for exceeding track limits and then not being perfect in his final stint where he also ran into traffic. Sunday's race promises another exciting duel between the two teams with Bottas the third pole-sitter in as many races, after Verstappen in Bahrain and Hamilton in Imola. IANS