Bottas takes his first British Grand Prix pole at Siilverstone

Silverstone, United Kingdom, July 13, 2019 (AFP) -Valtteri Bottas will start the British Grand Prix from pole position after edging his Mercedes teammate and current championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 0.006 seconds in qualifying at Silverstone on Saturday.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc qualified third fastest, ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who won the last race in Austria a fortnight ago.

Four-time world champion Sebastien Vettel starts from sixth in the second Ferrari.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo was seventh for Renault ahead of British rookies Lando Norris of McLaren and Alex Albon of Toro Rosso.

Nico Hulkenberg was 10th in the second Renault.Bottas's success brought him his first British pole position.

"It was really good and it reminds me of why we do this," said a smiling Bottas. "It's been really close with Lewis all weekend and I am really happy to get such a good lap and pole.

"Hamilton, who made two slight mistakes, said: "Congratulations to Valtteri – he did a really good job. It wasn't quite good enough... But this is the best Grand Prix of the year because of the energy this crowd and all these people bring.

"Leclerc said: "I think Mercedes turned up the engine a little bit and they were so good in the corners, which we know we need to work on."It was Mercedes' 64th front row lockout of the grid for a Grand Prix.