Valtteri Bottas claims pole position for the Eifel Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton begins his quest to level Michael Schumacher’s victory record from second on the grid, after being beaten to pole position by Valtteri Bottas for the Eifel Grand Prix.

Bottas, who won the last timeout in Russia, beat his Mercedes team-mate by an impressive 0.256 seconds in his last lap of the afternoon to get the booty at the close.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will be on the grid from third place ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Alexander Albon took fifth place in the other Red Bull.

After Friday’s washout, the drivers had just one hour of training at a location the sport hasn’t visited since 2013.

For a moment it looked like Verstappen could secure the first non-Mercedes pole of the season, but the Dutchman had to settle for third place, albeit only four hundredths behind Hamilton.

Bottas is 44 points behind Hamilton in the standings, but his pole lap here will give him hope that he can still give his teammate a champion fight over the last seven laps.

“It’s such a nice feeling when you do it on your last lap,” said Bottas after taking the 14th pole of his career. “Of course I think I can win tomorrow and that’s the only goal.”

Hamilton, who finished third in Sochi a fortnight ago after being given a 10 second penalty for a pre-race violation, added: ‘Valtteri was two tenths ahead today so he did a great job and congratulations. It’s a great track so it’s great to be here again. ‘

Nico Hulkenberg got his third replacement appearance of the season after receiving a late call from Racing Point to replace the unwell Lance Stroll.

The 33-year-old German, who stood in for Sergio Perez at the British and 70th Anniversary Grands Prix at Silverstone after the corona virus in Mexico, finished last of 20 runners.

One spot for him on the grid is 40-year-old veteran Kimi Raikkonen, who will start his 323rd F1 race on Sunday to surpass Rubens Barrichello as the most capped driver in history.

Sebastian Vettel was a disappointing 11th, while British driver Lando Norris finished eighth ahead of McLaren, with fellow countryman George Russell in 17th in his Williams.

Scroll down to relive all the action as it happened at the Nurburgring

Lewis Hamilton will try to put his two previous penalties behind him by claiming pole position for the Eifel Grand Prix this weekend.

Last month, Hamilton received two five-second penalties at the Russian Grand Prix after performing practice starts in a wrong location, forcing him to give up his race lead over Valterri Bottas before finishing third.

Max Verstappen, who shared the Mercedes duo to finish second, will want to spoil Hamilton’s race once again as the Briton wants to match Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 race wins.

With little fog, the first and second practice were canceled yesterday due to safety concerns, leaving the drivers with only today’s practice and qualifying to get used to the track – with Formula 1 returning to the Nürburgring for the first time since 2013.

SAM McEVOY from Sportsmail gives you all live coverage of the qualifying session.