As Bottas Leads Hamilton in 2021 F1 Poles, Here’s the Only Time He’s Been Beaten By a Teammate In His Career

Valtteri Bottas is on his way to ending a five-year partnership with the Mercedes AMG team. In his five years, both he and Lewis Hamilton have led the team to win four consecutive constructors’ championships, and they are competing with Red Bull for their fifth. But he is also closing on a very special record as well.

Bottas is currently aiming to become only the second driver to beat Lewis Hamilton in qualifying statistics for an entire season. Hamilton has only been once in his F1 career that was in 2014.

Hamilton has had 101 pole positions in Formula One till now. He has also had some tough teammates, such as Fernando Alonso, Heikki Kovalainen, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, and Valtteri Bottas. Interestingly, he once lost his qualifying battle to his former teammate, Nico Rosberg.

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Bottas leads the pole position battle from Lewis Hamilton in 2021

Lewis made his debut in the sport in 2007 and was partnered against then-reigning two-time world champion Fernando Alonso. Both drivers did not give an inch to each other and finished with the same points total. But Lewis won out in having more pole positions.

The Brit became the world champion in 2008 and partnered with Heikki Kovalainen for the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

From 2010 to 2012, he and Jenson Button were teammates in McLaren.

Hamilton faced his toughest challenge with Rosberg when he moved to Mercedes. They were nip and tuck in qualifying throughout as teammates, with Rosberg beating Lewis in 2014.

Valtteri Bottas then joined the Briton in 2017. Since then, he has statistically been the driver to have pushed Lewis the closest in terms of lap times. However, the seven-time world champion has beaten him every season.

Although it is to be mentioned that Bottas has benefitted from the sprint format. But the Finn has a great chance of winning out the pole position battle from his teammate with just three races to go.

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