Valtteri Bottas bounced back from a dismal Friday to claim his fifth pole position of the season on Saturday when he outpaced his stand-in Mercedes team-mate George Russell in an intense qualifying for Sunday’s Sakhir Grand Prix.
After being beaten in both opening practice sessions by Russell, who was released by Williams to substitute for Lewis Hamilton after the world champion tested positive for coronavirus, the Finn responded in familiar stoical fashion.
His late best lap in 53.377 seconds at the short, high-speed outer loop of the Bahrain International Circuit was just enough to pip Russell’s best effort, clocked on his team’s unexpected third Q3 run, by 0.026.
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