Bottas beats Vettel to take pole in Austria

It was the second pole of the Finnish driver’s career, and both have been since joining Mercedes this season. This pole was on the Spielberg track where Bottas secured his first podium finish three years ago, coming third. 

“The laps were getting better and better. It should be a good fight tomorrow,” said Bottas, who is third in the title race but trails championship leader Vettel by 42 points. “I’m sure Lewis (Hamilton) still has a lot of time to come back and get points for the team.” 

Hamilton, second in the championship behind Vettel, qualified in third place but will start from eighth because of a grid penalty. That means Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen moves up from fourth to third.

Nearing the end of the third and final practice session in the morning, Hamilton went off the track with some smoke pouring out the side of his car.

It was another blow for Hamilton, who took the grid penalty for an unauthorized gearbox change. He trails Vettel by 14 points after eight races, with both winning three times.