Bottas on pole – but George is the star
British driver George Russell narrowly missed out on a dream pole last night after he was edged to top spot by Valtteri Bottas for today’s Sakhir Grand Prix.
Russell, 22, deputising for Lewis Hamilton following the seven-time world champion’s positive Covid-19 test, finished only 0.026 seconds slower than Bottas in the other Mercedes.
Russell improved with his final run under the lights of the Sakhir Circuit, but he could not do enough to usurp the Finn. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will line up in third, just 0.056 sec behind Bottas. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished fourth.
Russell, a Williams driver by day, was handed a fairy-tale call-up after Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff called on him to fill Hamilton’s seat.
And the driver from King’s Lynn in Norfolk has impressed, topping both practice sessions here on Friday, before only just missing out on pole.
“It has been incredibly tense with so much to learn and getting use to
the car,” said Russell. “It felt really alien to begin with and it is a different way to drive. I needed to relearn how to drive this car fast.
“I was happy to get through to Q3 after final practice. If you told me last week
I’d qualify second, I wouldn’t have believed you.
“I have got nobody in front of me, which I have not experienced for a long time, so it is going to be tricky. I will give it everything I have got.”
Jack Aitken, the Englishman making his grand prix debut here as Russell’s deputy, finished 18th. Aitken, 25, will start ahead of 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen and Pietro Fittipaldi.
Fittipaldi, the grandson of double world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, qualified last. The 24-year-old Brazilian is standing in for Romain Grosjean following his terrifying 140mph fireball inferno in last weekend’s race in Bahrain.