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. 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.