Valtteri Bottas stunned Lewis Hamilton with time running out as he claimed his first career pole in a dominant Mercedes performance in qualifying for the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix.
Bottas clocked 1 minute 28.769 seconds for the 5.412-kilometres lap to edge out Hamilton by just over two-hundredths - 0.023 seconds. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was a distant third, 0.478 behind.
Bottas, who joined Mercedes in the off-season after the retirement of world champion Nico Rosberg, denied Hamilton a seventh straight pole.
Hamilton and Vettel top the championship with 43 points each from the first two season races.
