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Valtteri Bottas edged out his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to pole position on his final qualifying lap at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The Finn was 0.097 seconds faster than Hamilton, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third almost 0.5 seconds behind.
Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly was surprisingly fourth, ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull’s Alexander Albon.
On Sunday, Mercedes could win a seventh consecutive constructors’ title.
They will as long as Red Bull does not beat them by 34 points.
In the first two-day weekend of F1, returning to the Imola track which has not hosted a race since the 2006 San Marino Grand Prix, Hamilton was fastest in Saturday morning’s single practice session and was back on top after the first few races in the final standings. .
But a tricky lap from Hamilton in recent races gave Bottas a chance and he grabbed it with both hands.
“I really enjoyed it, this track,” said Bottas. “When you push hard, it’s beautiful. I knew you had to push on the last lap and it’s a great feeling when you get that.”
Hamilton said: “Valtteri did a great job and it was a bad lap for me. These things happen. You can’t do it right all the time.
“What a beautiful place we are here in Italy and the speeds at which we go on this track are incredible.
“I’m pretty sure we will see a boring race tomorrow. You can overtake at turn one, but it is quite tight and you cannot pass the rest.
The outstanding qualifying performance came from Gasly, who was confirmed as the Alpha Tauri driver for 2021 earlier in the week, as the team stepped up and rode just 0.326 seconds slower than Verstappen on the Red Bull.
His result will put pressure on Albon, who is under threat of losing his Red Bull at the end of the season.
Red Bull have made it clear that Albon needs a good race this weekend as they weigh whether to keep him or replace him with an experienced hand like Nico Hulkenberg or Sergio Perez.
Albon was 0.396 seconds slower than Verstappen.
Ferrari will be disappointed with seventh place on the grid for Charles Leclerc, but the 23-year-old was again superior to his teammate Sebastian Vettel, who continues to struggle with the car and was only able to achieve 14 on the grid.
Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kvyat and Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz’s McLarens rounded out the top 10.
And George Russell once again excelled at Williams, ranking 13th.
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