Valtteri Bottas still sees "opportunities" to beat Lewis Hamilton on Sunday despite qualifying P2 for the British Grand Prix.

The Finn had the edge on his teammate in final practice and might have expected Lewis' confidence to be knocked by a spin in Q2 which caused a brief red flag.

Instead, it only seemed to make Hamilton focus harder as he set two new track records around Silverstone in Q3 to clinch his 91st pole, three-tenths clear of Valtteri.

"The car was feeling pretty good, but the balance of the car was drifting a bit more towards oversteer," he explained post-session.

"I don't know if the track temps were getting higher, but with both runs in Q3, I really struggled to attack the slow-speed corners as I had done before, and in Turns 12, 13, I started to struggle with the rear end, it was a bit snappy.

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"At the same time, Lewis had a perfect lap in the end, or at least near to perfection. It was a pretty impressive lap time, and I just couldn't quite match it with the balance I had otherwise it was okay."

Looking ahead to Sunday, Bottas does need to find a way to halt the momentum Hamilton has built up in recent races, and does believe he can challenge the home hero.

"I think my long-run performance this weekend has been really good," he said.

"I believe there will be opportunities. Obviously, Lewis last year managed to win it from second place with a different strategy from me so everything is still wide open and no doubt the guys will try to mix it up from behind so we will see."

What was noticeable once again in qualifying is the considerable advantage Mercedes has, with Hamilton's pole time 1.1s clear of Max Verstappen in third.

"Today there's nothing to complain about. It was really good," team boss Toto Wolff to Sky Germany. 

"We were a second away from the others. I think we have adapted to the circumstances and it's cooler than yesterday and that's why this gap is bigger than yesterday."

As for race day, the Austrian also seemed to accept the only team that could beat Mercedes was themselves.

"We always have little 'gremlins' when it comes to the reliability that needs to be driven as well as possible for tomorrow," he explained.

"The two drivers have to get through the first few turns well, then we'll see."