(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Valtteri Bottas claimed his first career pole position on Saturday when he beat his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton with a well-controlled lap in Saturday's qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The 26-year-old Finn, who joined the team as replacement for retired 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg, made the most of a poor final lap by the Briton to claim the prime starting position for Sunday's race.
Hamilton, who was seeking his seventh successive pole position and third in a row this season, gave his team-mate a generous hug after the session.
"We will only be celebrating for a short time tonight. The most important thing is to be ready for tomorrow's race," said Bottas.
Rosberg was amongst the first to congratulate the pole sittter.
"Congrats Valtteri Bottas 1st pole! Great lap. Happy for all you guys at merc that Valtteri is going well," tweeted Rosberg.
Three-time champion Hamilton, who shares the championship lead with Sebastian Vettel and who had been quickest until the final runs, was unable to find the extra speed he needed on his second run in Q3 to retain pole position.
"Big congratulations to Valtteri," said Hamilton. "Today he was just quicker - hats off to him."
Four-time world champion Vettel was third fastest for Ferrari, unable to make an impact on the two Mercedes men who took the front row. It was the sixth consecutive year in Bahrain that Mercedes won pole.
"Overall I was happy with how the car felt. The gap to Mercedes was bigger than I expected but we will fight tomorrow," said Vettel.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo was fourth for Red Bull ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari, Max Verstappen in the second Red Bull and Nico Hulkenberg who qualified seventh for Renault.
Felipe Massa was eighth for Williams ahead of Frenchman Romain Grosjean of Haas and Briton Jolyon Palmer in the second Renault.
Earlier, Max Verstappen topped the times for Red Bull in Saturday's hot, windswept and closely-contested final free practice.
In a session that was halted briefly after Frenchman Romain Grosjean crashed in his Haas-Ferrari car, the 19-year-old Dutchman clocked a best lap in one minute and 32.194 to finish one-tenth of a second clear of nearest rival Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.
Sebastian Vettel, who shares the lead in this year's embryonic drivers' championship with Hamilton, was third fastest for Ferrari ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes.
Kimi Raikkonen was fifth in the second Ferrari ahead of Felipe Massa of Williams, Australian Daniel Riccirdo in the second Red Bull and German Nico Hulkenberg of Renault.
Carlos Sainz was ninth ahead of his Toro Rosso team-mate Russian Daniil Kvyat.
The top eight cars were separated by less than eight-tenths of a second in conditions that are not expected to be repeated in qualifying scheduled for later on Saturday as the sun, and the wind, goes down.
In marginally cooler conditions with an air temperature of 35 degrees Celsius and track of 39, the session began slowly. After early installation laps, Frenchman Esteban Ocon of Force India was briefly quickest before Spaniard Carlos Sainz planted his Red Bull on top of the times.
By the half-hour mark, both Ferrari and Mercedes were doing little bar check out their cars with slow uncompetitive laps as a strong wind arrived. There was little for the fans, enduring the scorching sunshine, to enjoy before the session was halted by a red flag after 38 minutes when Frenchman Romain Grosjean spun and crashed at Turn Four, damaging the front of his Haas car.
In the severe heat, the tyres were over-heating and this caused a wild moment from Verstappen on his way to the quickest lap, at the time, of 1:33.249.
Three minutes later, after clearing up behind Grosjean's exclusion, Verstappen remained quickest ahead of Massa with 18 minutes remaining. Both Ferrari and Mercedes decided it was time to join the action.
Vettel ran wide on his first lap as Raikkonen, and then Bottas, clocked fastest laps before Hamilton, who had suggested on Friday that the 'daytime' sessions were pointless ahead of a floodlit race, came out.
Before the Englishman had a chance to go for a genuine quick lap, Vettel took over on top with a lap in 1:32.750 - just 0.004 seconds quicker than Bottas - to confirm that a tight qualifying scrap was in prospect.
The two-team battle was extended to three when Verstappen clocked his fastest lap with three minutes remaining before Hamilton secured second for the session, one-tenth adrift of the Dutchman, but nearly half a second clear of Vettel.
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