<p>Valtteri Bottas beat crowd favourite and Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton by a wafer-thin margin on Saturday to deny his Mercedes team-mate a fifth successive British Grand Prix pole position.</p>.<p>The Finn was a mere 0.006 of a second quicker than the five times world champion as the two Silver Arrows once again locked out the front row of the grid on a cloudy afternoon at Silverstone.</p>.<p>Ferrari's young Monegasque Charles Leclerc will share the second row with Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who won the previous race in Austria where the two 21-year-olds clashed on track while fighting for victory in the closing laps.</p>.<p>The pole, in a time of one minute 25.093 seconds, was Bottas's fourth in 10 races this season -- more than any other driver -- and career 10th.</p>.<p>"Ultimately not good enough," said Hamilton, who was fastest in the first phase of qualifying, of his performance. "We worked really hard throughout the session but it just got a little bit away from us.</p>.<p>"I sacrificed a lap in Q2 (the second phase), which would have helped get a reading of how the car was. And then just at the end, I had that mistake on the first lap and the second one just wasn't that great.</p>.<p>"Fair play to Valtteri, he did the job. But it’s a long race and we’ve got a great crowd here so hopefully, I can do something different."</p>.<p>Bottas is 31 points adrift of Hamilton in the championship and needs to close the gap, fully aware that his team-mate has a habit of hitting full throttle once the August break is out of the way.</p>.<p>"I knew the first lap was good but it wasn't perfect and honestly I should've improved in the second run and I'm glad it was enough - it's not easy to get a quick lap together and it's very easy to do mistakes," said the happy Finn.</p>.<p>Hamilton remains well-placed, however, to take a record sixth home win and 80th of his career.</p>.<p>Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, last year's race winner, was sixth and behind Red Bull's French driver Pierre Gasly on the third row.</p>.<p>Australian Daniel Ricciardo lines up seventh for Renault, alongside McLaren's Lando Norris after another fine performance by the British teenage rookie whose Spanish team-mate Carlos Sainz was 13th.</p>
<p>Valtteri Bottas beat crowd favourite and Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton by a wafer-thin margin on Saturday to deny his Mercedes team-mate a fifth successive British Grand Prix pole position.</p>.<p>The Finn was a mere 0.006 of a second quicker than the five times world champion as the two Silver Arrows once again locked out the front row of the grid on a cloudy afternoon at Silverstone.</p>.<p>Ferrari's young Monegasque Charles Leclerc will share the second row with Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who won the previous race in Austria where the two 21-year-olds clashed on track while fighting for victory in the closing laps.</p>.<p>The pole, in a time of one minute 25.093 seconds, was Bottas's fourth in 10 races this season -- more than any other driver -- and career 10th.</p>.<p>"Ultimately not good enough," said Hamilton, who was fastest in the first phase of qualifying, of his performance. "We worked really hard throughout the session but it just got a little bit away from us.</p>.<p>"I sacrificed a lap in Q2 (the second phase), which would have helped get a reading of how the car was. And then just at the end, I had that mistake on the first lap and the second one just wasn't that great.</p>.<p>"Fair play to Valtteri, he did the job. But it’s a long race and we’ve got a great crowd here so hopefully, I can do something different."</p>.<p>Bottas is 31 points adrift of Hamilton in the championship and needs to close the gap, fully aware that his team-mate has a habit of hitting full throttle once the August break is out of the way.</p>.<p>"I knew the first lap was good but it wasn't perfect and honestly I should've improved in the second run and I'm glad it was enough - it's not easy to get a quick lap together and it's very easy to do mistakes," said the happy Finn.</p>.<p>Hamilton remains well-placed, however, to take a record sixth home win and 80th of his career.</p>.<p>Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, last year's race winner, was sixth and behind Red Bull's French driver Pierre Gasly on the third row.</p>.<p>Australian Daniel Ricciardo lines up seventh for Renault, alongside McLaren's Lando Norris after another fine performance by the British teenage rookie whose Spanish team-mate Carlos Sainz was 13th.</p>