Sakhir GP: Bottas Pole, Russell impressive
Russell misses out on maiden Mercedes pole by 0.02s as Bottas stamps his authority in Sakhir
Valtteri Bottas pipped his substitute Mercedes team mate George Russell to pole position for the Sakhir Grand Prix by just 0.026s, as the Silver Arrows set a scintillating pace in qualifying, with the top 10 separated by less than a second.
George almost took Pole at Sakhir GP
It was Russell, standing in for Lewis Hamilton who tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of the weekend, who looked the quicker of the two cars on Friday, but Bottas found more pace on Saturday to set up a thrilling showdown in Bahrain.
Bottas was quickest on his second run – first on soft tyres – with Russell slotting into second, but it was the Briton who was lighting up the timesheets on the final runs.
Pole was within his grasp, but he ultimately missed out by a fraction of the second, and while P2 is his best-ever grid slot, defeat to Bottas means his run of 36 qualifying sessions having never been beaten by a team mate since his F1 debut is over.
Max was really really close to the Mercedes cars
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was their closest challenger, 0.030s further back, in what was an incredibly close session on F1’s shortest circuit.
Charles had a sublime lap putting him on P4
Charles Leclerc did just one run. However, it was good enough for a remarkable fourth for the fourth time this season.
It’s déjà vu for Sergio Perez, who is running an old spec engine after suffering a failure that cost him a podium last time out in Bahrain, after he qualified fifth for the second successive week, one place ahead of AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat whose P6 is his best since the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Daniel Ricciardo was the best-placed Renault in seventh, just edging out McLaren’s Carlos Sainz. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and the Racing Point of Lance Stroll closing out the top 10.
Sakhir GP Quali Classification
We are in for a very interesting race tomorrow. It is a relatively short circuit. There will be 87 laps. A podium finish was George would be amazing. The race however would be much more challenging than the quali.