Valtteri Bottas says he “had the sh𒉰akes” after se꧙curing pole position for the Emilia Romagna F1 Grand Prix.

Going into the final runs in Q3, Bottas was a tenth shy of Hamilton ꦗbu🌺t the Finn managed to put a lap together to take pole by just under a tenth.

It is Bottas’ fourth pole of the year but he’s only converted 🎀fiv෴e of his previous 14 poles into race victories.

Reflecting on qualifying at Imola, Bottas said: “Yes, you always have to, there are never easy pole positions. I’m really enjoying this track, when you push flat out it’s beau🧸tiful. I knew I had to improve in the last lap and found those smal♑l gains that we needed.

“It’s a great feeling when you can those and 💯I definitely had the shakes after. It was good fun.”

Bottas says finding gains in the final sector of the lap was crucial to taking pole ahead♛ of Hamilton, who was the faster of the two in the final third of the lap throughout the session.

“For me, the Turns 2/3 was something I was working on all day and I only got there at the end,” B෴ottas added. “Also in the last two corners I was struggling all day, every time I tried to go for it I struggled with the instability of the car but I knew in the last lap I had to try and I risked it and the car just managed to turn ๊in nicely- it was good!”

With a long run down to Turn 1, Bottas expects Hamilton🔯 and Max Verꦅstappen to try and make the most of the slipstream on Lap 1.

“Yes, it’s going to be good fun. It’s one of the longest runs in the calendar into Turn 1 so no 𝕴doubt Lewis and Max will be chasing me, but it’s a good place to start from. The pace is good, so, game on.”