The third race weekend of the 2017 Formula One season, the Bahrain Grand Prix, was once again fiercely contested by the top tier teams and even in qualifying there was just one second covering the top six drivers (both Mercedes, both Ferrari's and both Red Bulls).
In the end, Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas won out and secured his maiden pole position in the pinnacle of Motorsport - the first for a Finn since Heikki Kovalainen at Silverstone in 2008. T
his was also the 49th pole position for a Finnish driver in a Formula One race. Mika Häkkinen, Kimi Räikkönen, Kovalainen and Valtteri achieved 39 of these poles between them, and they were all powered by Mercedes.
The gap between Valtteri's pole time and that of Lewis Hamilton in second place was just 0.023 seconds. Valtteri also posted the fastest lap time ever recorded in Formula One at the Bahrain International Circuit with a 1:28.769.
Thin, in the race that followed, Lewis and Valtteri secured the Silver Arrows' second double podium finish this season. Lewis stood on the podium for the 107th time in his F1 career. He is now in P2, one place up on Alain Prost in the standings for the most podiums ever achieved in F1.
In the Bahrain Grand Prix, he also secured the fastest race lap for the 33rd time in his F1 career.
Record Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher heads the standings in both these categories with 155 podiums and 77 fastest race laps.
