Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas takes pole position for Sakhir GP ahead of George Russell

Temporary teammate impresses during qualifying on Saturday

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas after clinching pole position for the Sakhir GP on Saturday. AP

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas took pole position ahead of temporary teammate George Russell for the Sakhir Grand Prix on Saturday.

It was the 16th pole of Bottas’ career and he placed just .026 seconds ahead of Russell, driving in a Mercedes for the first time in the absence of world champion Lewis Hamilton, and .056 clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

“I’m happy to be on pole but it wasn’t my best performance in qualifying,” said Bottas, who has five poles this season and goes for his third win of the campaign.

But he was pushed hard by the highly rated Russell, who made the transition from Williams seamlessly.

Charles Leclerc, who led F1 with seven poles last season, drove superbly in a Ferrari which has not been competitive this year and qualified in fourth place ahead of Racing Point’s Sergio Perez.

Former champion Kimi Raikkonen was among the five drivers eliminated from Q1, the first part of qualifying. Four-time champion Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari; McLaren’s Lando Norris, and Red Bull’s Alexander Albon all went out of Q2, while Verstappen topped it to set himself up well for Q3.

Earlier, Verstappen boosted Red Bull by posting the fastest time in the third and final practice but lacked enough pace to unsettle Mercedes on his final lap in qualifying.

“I hope we have a bit of fun tomorrow,” Verstappen said after missing out on his first pole this season. “All the lap times are so close.”

In P3, Verstappen moved up the leaderboard late in the session to finish .21 seconds ahead of Bottas and .36 clear of Russell

Verstappen has won one race this season in a slower car than Mercedes.

Russell topped both of Friday’s practice sessions in an impressive performance after stepping in as a replacement for world champion Lewis Hamilton, who is self-isolating for 10 days after contracting the coronavirus earlier this week.