George Russell misses out on pole by two-hundredths of a second as Valterri Bottas claims pole ahead of the 2020 F1 Sakhir Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas was pushed by George Russell as he replaces Lewis Hamilton this weekend, but the Finn was able to claim pole position for the 16th time in his career ahead of Russell and Max Verstappen in third.

Five-hundredths split the top three as Max Verstappen’s banker lap looked to be unbeatable, but the Mercedes pair ran three sets of tyres instead of two and locked out the front-row with Bottas ahead of Russell.

A surprising lap from Leclerc put the Ferrari into fourth-place and Sergio Perez came fifth. Daniil Kvyat was the best performing AlphaTauri as he qualified sixth and Daniel Ricciardo was the sole Renault in Q3 as he put his car into seventh.

The sole McLaren of Carlos Sainz put his car eighth, Pierre Gasly in ninth and Lance Stroll rounded off the top ten.

Esteban Ocon narrowly missed out on the top ten as his Renault will start 11th and he’ll have Alex Albon for company as he couldn’t put his car into Q3 and qualified 12th. Sebastian Vettel starts tomorrow’s race in 13th with Antonio Giovinazzi in P14 and Lando Norris a torrid 15th.

Kevin Magnussen put his Haas car into 16th as Nicholas Latifi was able to out-qualify his teammate for the first time this season as he slid into 17th and Jack Aitken in 18th. F1 debutant, Pietro Fittipaldi, has Kimi Raikkonen alongside him as the Alfa Romeo is in 19th and the Haas at the back of the grid in P20.

As It Happened

Q1

The Hass pair of Kevin Magnussen and F1 debutant Fittipaldi came out on the track first as they looked to set benchmark times. A lap time of 55.884 for Fittipaldi saw Magnussen go two-tenths quicker than the Brazillian.

Carlos Sainz jumped into first not long after. The Spaniard was able to wrestle his car around the outer layout of the Bahrain International Circuit and go one-tenth faster than the Haas driver.

Max Verstappen was the first driver to dip into the 54.0 lap time as the flying Dutchman put his raring Red Bull onto the top spot.

The drivers eliminated from the first qualifying session were: Kevin Magnussen, Nicholas Latifi, Jack Aitken, Kimi Raikkonen and Pietro Fittipaldi.

The top three from that session were: Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen and George Russell.

Q2

Sainz looked to make it out of Q2 and into Q3 as he came out of the pit-lane first as the McLaren driver set a lap time of 54.514 on his first push lap.

A few minutes later, the Mercedes pair jumped to the top of the timing charts as Bottas was ahead of Russell with Verstappen third, two-tenths slower than the Silver Arrows.

Four Mercedes powered cars covered the top five as Sergio Perez with five minutes to go was fastest, Bottas in second, Russell in fourth and Lance Stroll in fifth.

Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon, Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Giovinazzi and Lando Norris all missed out on Q3 with Norris and Albon the huge disappointments from that session.

Q3

The top ten shootout began as the two Silver Arrows in their neat black livery for 2020 came out onto the track first.

Bottas was the first driver to set a competitive time as his time of 53.760 saw Russell two-tenths slower than the Finn.

Verstappen and Charles Leclerc jumped onto the front-row as two-hundredths separated the two drivers as the Ferrari put in a fantastic lap.

As it stood with five minutes to go, Bottas jumped onto provisional pole as Russell trailed his temporary Mercedes teammate by one and a half tenths.

Russell missed out on pole by two-hundredths of a second after the last flying laps as Bottas sealed pole position and Verstappen stayed third as five-hundredths separated the top three.

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