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Valtteri Bottas edged out Mercedes’ new kid George Russell to pole position at the Sakhir Grand Prix.
The Finn was just 0.026 seconds faster than Russell, driving for Mercedes for the first time as a replacement for Lewis Hamilton, who has coronavirus.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was just 0.03 seconds behind Russell in third place.
And there was a superb performance from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished fourth, less than 0.3 seconds from pole, with his teammate Sebastian Vettel 13th.
It was a very impressive performance from Russell, who had set the pace in both practice sessions on Friday, but fell back a bit once the race started on Saturday.
Bottas was 0.212 seconds faster than Russell after the first few races in qualifying, but the Finn couldn’t improve in his second race and Russell was able to run it close but he just missed.
Russell said: “It’s been incredibly intense, a lot to learn, getting used to the car, the seat, everything.
“It felt really strange to begin with. A different way of driving, trying to unlearn what I learned at Williams and learn to drive this fast car.
“I was wrong about some things in P3 and I would have liked to get into Q3 at that stage, but I got it all in Q3.
“Valtteri has pushed Lewis incredibly close over the years and being so close to Valtteri that it comes with two days of preparation, I am delighted.”
Bottas said: “It’s a different situation to have a different teammate, but I just wanted to focus on what I was doing and not waste energy on anything else.
“In terms of strategy, we are in a good place and it is good to see George in the front row. It is not my best qualifying, but I am happy with pole.”
What a turn from Leclerc
Leclerc’s performance was arguably the standout moment in qualifying.
Ferrari qualified 11th and 12th at the Bahrain Grand Prix last weekend and did not have high expectations for this race on a new, shorter layout of the same track.
But Leclerc stood out, first by sneaking into the bottom part of qualifying, 0.3 seconds faster than Vettel at the time, and then with an outstanding lap right at the start of the session that placed him second behind Verstappen at the time. .
Then he went on the radio and told his team: “This lap was very good.”
That was it for Leclerc, as he had no new tires left to race again, but although the track theoretically gets faster in one session, only the Mercedes drivers were able to go faster than him and be 0.236 seconds behind the lead. pole in a Ferrari. it will go down as one of the returns of the season.
“I’m very happy because it was a kind of bet to go out at the beginning and not go out again but for different reasons I wanted to go early. Because of traffic, because I expected it to be a disaster at the end of the race.” , and also not wait too long before going out again, “said Leclerc.
“I had clear ideas of what I wanted to do in the car and I managed to put everything on my lap, so I am very happy to start in fourth place.”
How did the rest do?
Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez was fifth fastest, ahead of a solid performance by Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kvyat, who beat Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo in sixth place.
McLaren’s Carlos Sainz was eighth ahead of Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll’s Racing Point second.
Red Bull’s Alex Albon fell to 12th place, nearly 0.4 seconds slower than Verstappen in the second knockout session, a far from ideal performance for the British-Thai driver who has two races to convince the team that should stay in next season.
Sainz’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris was down in 15th place after a strange mix-up that led to him failing to post a representative lap time in second qualifying.
Britain’s Jack Aitken was 18th on his Williams debut, replacing Russell, just 0.096 seconds behind his teammate Nicholas Latifi and ahead of Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo.
Brazilian Pietro Fittipaldi was 20th and last when he replaced Romain Grosjean at Haas after the Frenchman’s fierce accident last Sunday.
