Valtteri Bottas finally had the luck in his favour as a blistering final lap was enough to beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.The Finnish driver posted a new track record of 1m03.130s, giving him a margin of just 0.019s over his Mercedes teammate as the Silver Arrows locked out the front row for the second successive weekend.For Hamilton, it came down to his second attempt in Q3, after getting it wrong at Turn 3 on his first try, and ultimately he can be pretty pleased to only have Bottas ahead of him as Ferrari's renewed threat faded.Sebastian Vettel also ruined his first flying lap with an error at Turn 4 and had to settle for third. The four-time world champion also found himself over three-tenths behind Mercedes, with all that lost time coming in the final sector.Kimi Raikkonen was also faster than Bottas in the first two sectors but couldn't sustain it through the final two corners, ending two-tenths behind his German partner in fourth.

Red Bull falter at the Red Bull Ring

It's not been a happy homecoming for Red Bull at their home circuit so far and that was vindicated in qualifying with the Anglo-Austrian squad barely maintaining their place as the third-best team.

A last-gasp lap from Max Verstappen put the Dutchman fifth, much to the delight of his many fans that have made the trip to Spielberg, but teammate Daniel Ricciardo was beaten by the Haas of Romain Grosjean, as the Australian struggled to pace.

The second Haas of Kevin Magnussen only just missed out on seventh, as the American team firmly took a stranglehold as the lead midfield team.

Both Renault's completed the top 10, with Carlos Sainz ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, but they were six and nine-tenths slower respectively than the Dane in eighth.

The tale of teammates

The rest of the grid was characterised by the remaining five teams seemingly have one driver massively out-perform the other. 

The best example was Esteban Ocon as he extracted the optimum from his Force India in P11, on a weekend when the Silverstone-based team has struggled for competitiveness.

Compare that to his teammate Sergio Perez, who couldn't make it out of Q1 in 17th.

At Toro Rosso, Pierre Gasly also produced a solid performance in 12th, while teammate Brendon Hartley will start 19th.

Admittedly both Perez and Hartley missed out on the chance to improve at the end of Q1 as Charles Leclerc made a mistake at Turn 4, causing yellow flags.

The Sauber driver couldn't quite repeat his Q3 heroics from Paul Ricard in 13th, and worse the for Monegasque he will take a five-place grid penalty for a new gearbox after a problem in final practice, meaning he starts P18.

McLaren & Williams enjoy better luck

Fernando Alonso was up on the time to make the top 10 through the first two sectors in Q2 but would run wide over the harsh 'baguette' kerbs at the final two corners costing him any chance of progressing and keeping him in 14th.

Lance Stroll produced an excellent last-ditch effort at the end of Q1 to make it through but couldn't improve on 15th in the Williams.

The Canadian's lap also saw Stoffel Vandoorne knocked out in the first part of qualifying for the second straight weekend in the McLaren in 16th, missing out by just 0.007s

With Austria seeing the shortest lap of the year in terms of lap time, the gaps were even closer than usual.

Just 0.213s covered Ocon to Alonso in 11th to 14th while 0.102s separated Stroll to Hartley from positions 15-19 in Q1.

A full look at the results of qualifying can be seen below:

Mercedes back on the march

Back at the front and the good times are back at Mercedes in qualifying at least with a second 1-2 result in seven days.

Much like Paul Ricard last weekend, Vettel could have the advantage off the line after opting for the Ultrasoft tyres compared to Hamilton and Bottas on the Supersofts.

It's likely the German will be a tad more cautious on the approach to Turn 1 this time around though, but the pace that Ferrari has shown on the straights could be the key difference that turns around the formbook on Sunday.

With three DRS zones and opportunities to overtake a thrilling race is in store and it will be fascinating to see if the upgraded Mercedes really can be stopped.