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The Mercedes team decided to replace Lewis Hamilton, who fell ill with coronavirus, with his young protégé, George Russell.
He did not disappoint, and in the first classification in the short ring in Sakhir he was close to victory, and finally lost to Valtteri Bottas a couple of hundredths of a second.
Russell admitted that he felt a lot of tension during the session.
“We had to operate the car in a completely different way,” he told reporters. “I tried to forget everything I learned at Williams and re-learn to drive this fast car.
Saturday practice I tried a lot of things, but it didn’t work out very well. To be honest, I was really glad that I was able to get to the third segment after that.
But no, of course, I’m happy. On the decisive lap, it almost turned out to put everything together. Of course, I am devastated to have lost pole by a couple hundredths, but if you had told me a week ago that this time I will be second on the grid, I would simply refuse to believe it. “
He added: “Valtteri has put a lot of pressure on Lewis in qualifying this season. There seems to be an average of only one-tenth between them.
Everybody knows how good Lewis is. Therefore, be immediately behind Valtteri. sitting in the car at the last minute and having two days to prepare, all of this makes me happy. Let’s see what we have tomorrow. “
He noted that he expected more difficulties in the race than in qualifying: “There will be no one on the grid in front of me. I haven’t felt it in a long time. But the race will be difficult. In qualifying I felt very comfortable, there you just have to squeeze everything you can.
Tomorrow will require more control, physical fitness. I just don’t have that experience yet. Of course, I will give myself completely, we’ll see what comes out of that. “
In his entire career in Formula 1, Russell has never been able to score points.
