Lewis Hamilton ready to 'give it everything' as Valtteri Bottas vows not to hold up Sebastian Vettel

The Brit will start from eighth place following a grid penalty as title rival Vettel sits alongside teammate Bottas on the front row in Austria

Lewis Hamilton will start from eighth with teammate Valtteri Bottas on pole (Getty)

Perhaps the most outstanding points from qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix were not so much that Valtteri Bottas took his second pole position of the season for Mercedes, ahead of Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari, excellent though his performance was. But that team-mate Lewis Hamilton did such a stunning job on the supersoft Pirelli tyres in the second session yet was unable to get his car hooked up sufficiently to challenge for pole position on the same ultrasoft rubber as his rivals when it mattered in the final session.

And that when former G2 champion Davide Valescchi tried rather lamely to get Vettel and Hamilton to shake hands as he interviewed them immediately afterwards, neither of them exhibited the slightest interest even though had professed their continuing respect for none another on Thursday after their controversial collision last time out in Baku.

Under the rules, drivers must start the race on the tyres on which they set their fastest time in Q2. And since Hamilton knew coming into the weekend that he would gain a five-place grid penalty because his car needed a gearbox change, his team decided he would be better off starting on the harder compound tyres and trying to gain places by running longer than his rivals during their first stints.

That should have meant he was slower than those on the faster compound, but there were gasps when he set the initial pace in Q2 with the fastest lap thus far in the weekend of 1m 04.800s, faster than any had gone on the ultrasofts. Especially as Vettel’s response was 1m 04.823s, and Bottas’s only 1m 04.640s, when the softer tyres should have been much quicker.

But though Hamilton had set the pace in the first two practice sessions on Friday and again in the first qualifying session, after brake problems in this morning’s final practice, he admitted that he just didn’t get his car as hooked up when he went back on to the ultrasofts for that final crucial session.

He lapped in 1m 04.424s, while Bottas impressed with 1m 04.251s as Vettel’s counter-attack fell fractionally short with 1m 04.293s.

Then Hamilton’s second run was compromised after he ran wide in the first corner, but everyone’s chances of improving were thwarted when Romain Grosjean’s Haas-Ferrari rolled to a halt in Turn 2, bringing out the yellow flags just before the time ran out.

As Bottas thus lined up in the best starting spot for the second time in his career, Hamilton was only third and dropped to eighth in the starting line-up when his penalty was applied.

“I’ve maintain exactly the same approached as usual,” he said of his planned strategy. “I knew about the gearbox problem on Tuesday, and it’s hard when you come from a disappointment such as we had in Baku [where he lost the race when his car’s headrest worked loose and he had to stop for a replacement] and then have a really positive mindset. When you find out something like you have a penalty, that’s difficult to swallow. But we’ve just have to push together as a team and fight back.

“The plan as ever will be to try get high as possible and when it comes to race it has to be all about damage limitation.”

There were suggestions that Bottas might take the lead, then attempt to contain Vettel’s challenge while Hamilton fights his way up, but both men dismissed that idea.

“From what I’ve seen in our pre-race strategy, that isn’t in the notes,” the Finn said. “The focus will simply be on trying to have a strong race and to win. Sebastian and Ferrari have been very quick all weekend, and with DRS and things like that, if you try and hold somebody up rather than running at your own speed, you can get into trouble.

“I really enjoyed today, and we definitely had got a car that was really nice and stable for qualifying. I was able to build up the confidence, and you really need that in the high-speed corners here. We didn’t touch car at all throughout the three qualifying sessions, and the laps kept getting better and better. I’m really looking forward to the race.”

“It was a difficult day,” Hamilton said. “But it as a pretty straightforward qualifying session. I had no issues and the car was good. Valtteri did a fantastic job and I’m very happy for him. I just didn’t hook it up in Q3. Q1 and Q2 were okay, but Q3 was just so, so.

“Of course I’m going to give it everything I can, and I’ll be happy if I can get back up there. It would make no sense to slow Valtteri down, so my first stint will be just about how much longer I can run. I hope I can join Valtteri to make it a 1-2 for Mercedes and gain as many points as we can for the team.”

Vettel, meanwhile, was philosophical about missing his second chance to grab the pole.

“We weren’t quite quick enough on the first run but the car was really phenomenal, so it was a shame the second turned out to be an anti-climax. But what goes around comes around. It’s been very quick at times this year between Valtteri and me, and I’ve been lucky and beaten him by a couple of thousands a couple of times, so the story continues between us. Well done to him. I was pretty happy with my lap, because on a short track it’s not easy get it all right, but we made a good step from yesterday, and it’s going to be a long race tomorrow.”

And the handshake? It actually happened as the two title contenders walked out for their interviews, so as is so often the case in F1, perception was not the same as reality.