Bottas pips Russell to pole for the Sakhir Grand Prix, Verstappen third

Valtteri Bottas pipped temporary Mercedes teammate George Russell to pole position for the Sakhir Grand Prix, but only just – the Finn edging it by just 0.142s as Max Verstappen was his customary third on the grid.

It was still a superb effort from Russell, who only learned earlier in the week that he would replace the COVID-19 afflicted Lewis Hamilton in the team, yet still topped both sessions of free practice on Friday.

GEORGE: "Really pleased but gutted to miss out on pole. If you told me I was qualifying in P2 last week I wouldn’t have believed you.

Tomorrow’s going to be tricky… but I’ll see what I can do"#SakhirGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/gWVj0XX9C0

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 5, 2020

“It’s been incredibly intense, so much to learn,” said Russell after his qualifying effort. “Getting used to the car, the seat everything just so different. It felt really alien to begin with. It was just a really different way of driving, to be honest, trying to unlearn what I learned at Williams and re-learn how to drive this car fast. I tried a lot of things in FP3 and it didn’t go well at all, so I’d have been happy just to get through to Q3 after final practice!

“But really pleased. We pretty much got it all together in the final lap. Obviously gutted to miss out on pole by twenty milliseconds but if you told me last week I’d be qualifying P2 on the grid, I think I wouldn’t believe you. Valtteri has pushed Lewis a huge amount in qualifying over the years and statistically I think there’s only been a tenth between them and we all know how good Lewis is. So to be just behind Valtteri coming in with just two days of prep. I’m pleased. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

VALTTERI: "It's good to see George locking the front row. It's good to be on pole, not my best qualifying, but happy it was enough"#BahrainGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/vN7MAdASyF

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 5, 2020

Charles Leclerc was a superb fourth fastest for Ferrari after a difficult season for the Scuderia, the Monegasque ahead of Daniil Kvyat, Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz as Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten.

But it was a disappointing qualifying for the second Red Bull of Alexander Albon, who missed out on Q3 and could only manage 12^th on the grid.

Almost nothing in it at the top 😱#SakhirGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/hdAkmvxvms

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 5, 2020