Daniel Ricciardo enjoyed one of his stronger qualifying performances of the year with the fifth-fastest time, as Valtteri Bottas claimed pole position for the Italian Grand Prix Sprint after snatching top spot in qualifying from his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n
The Australian was 0.006 seconds slower than his teammate Lando Norris in fourth. <\/p>\n
If he keeps his position in the sprint race, then he will start just outside the podium positions in fourth due to a Valteri Bottas penalty.<\/p>\n
"From a general standpoint, I'm happy. We were fast and were fighting for top three on the grid, so I'm happy we had the potential to do that," Ricciardo said.<\/p>\n
"But I'm so frustrated that we got that close but not quite close enough. It was more of a tease than anything, but it's all good.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
"I think the team performance was great. We didn't put ourselves in a difficult situation with any of the out-laps and I was in the right places in terms of track position, we had good tows.<\/p>\n
"My only frustration is that it's so close and, unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of the milliseconds. It is what it is and I'm now looking forward to the racing."<\/p>\n
Bottas finished just 0.096 sec ahead of seven-time world champion Hamilton which means 32-year-old Bottas will lead the field in the 100km Sprint, which will decide the grid for the GP.<\/p>\n
First place in the Sprint will take three points, second place two and third place one.<\/p>\n
However Bottas will start at the back of the grid on Sunday regardless of how he fares in the Sprint as he was penalised for taking on power unit components.<\/p>\n
"That qualifying lap was nice. It feels so good when you get a nice lap," said Bottas, who will join Alfa Romeo next season.<\/p>\n
"I feel good, I feel relaxed and everything is sorted for the future."<\/p>\n
Red Bull's championship leader Max Verstappen took third, 0.411sec off Bottas, as he tries to defend his tiny three-point lead from Hamilton, who will again attempt to bring up a century of GP victories.<\/p>\n
Hamilton has been stuck on 99 wins since taking the British GP at Silverstone in mid-July, which was when the Sprint qualifying format was used for the first time.<\/p>\n
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