And after starting at the back for the past two races, the 26-year-old from Horsham, turned in a much-improved performance here to make it through to Q3 for the first time in his career.
After qualifying third in Australia and China, Bottas found the set-up and speed to turn the tables on the two championship leaders, his best lap allowing him to beat Hamilton by 0.023 seconds in the closing minutes of the top-10 shootout.
Hamilton, who was seeking his seventh successive pole position and third in a row this season, gave his team-mate a generous hug after the session. Felt I could extract pretty much the maximum out of the vehicle so that's always a good feeling and for sure it always takes a bit of time to get there.
"Overall I was very happy with how qualifying went and how the vehicle felt", Vettel said.
Chinese Grand Prix victor and joint Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was fifth overall, but struggled to get a clean lap on his quali runs, with Nico Hulkenberg holding him up at the apex of Turn 9 on his second attempt.
"As a driver, you never want to lose, and you never want to lose against a team mate but equally I see there is lot of respect for each other", said the Austrian.
"My last lap was a good one, good enough for pole today so that's good".
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Vettel was quickest in both sessions at the Bahrain International Circuit, 0.400 seconds up on Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo in P1, before lowering the marker in the more representative evening session when he did a 1 minute 31.310 second lap. "Four-tenths is a lot more than I expected".
Felipe Massa was eighth for Williams ahead of Romain Grosjean of Haas and Jolyon Palmer in the second Renault. When drivers rolled out of the paddock for the day's first practice session, track temperatures were at 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fernando Alonso misses next month's Monaco Grand Prix as he heads to the United States to take on the Indianapolis 500, and the Spaniard, who will be replaced by Jenson Button, will be looking forward to the change of scenery. The Toro Rosso driver was comfortably quicker toward the end of the lap but the error cost him a place in Q3. Tomorrow could be his first grand prix win ever.
Hamilton had been fastest in both the first and second phases of qualifying, and set the pace with his first lap in the final session before Bottas pulled off his masterstroke.
Nevertheless, Verstappen's impressive lap will provide Red Bull with hope that they can take the fight to Mercedes and Ferrari in Bahrain with a three-team shoot-out for pole position now a distinct possibility.
Kimi Raikkonen suffered a similar problem during P1 and Vettel admits the team were fortunate to recover.
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