Valtteri Bottas Leads Mercedes Lock-Out Of Sakhir Grand Prix

After being upstaged by his new temporary teammate on Friday, Valtteri Bottas roared back to claim pole for the FORMULA 1 ROLEX SAKHIR GRAND PRIX 2020, narrowly beating out George Russell.

Max Verstappen will start third, while Charles Leclerc qualified an impressive fourth.

5th Pole Of 2020 For Valtteri Bottas

After playing second-fiddle to Lewis Hamilton for much of the season, Valtteri Bottas reveled in the opportunity to be the #1 driver, taking his 16th career pole, and 5th of the 2020 FORMULA 1 season.

‘It’s great to be on pole, I’m happy with that, but this wasn’t my best qualifying. My second run in Q3 was decent, but I think there was still a bit of time missing in Turn 7 and 8.

‘I was the first car out on track on the final run, so I didn’t have a tow and ultimately couldn’t improve. It was fairly close in the end, so I’m pleased it was enough for pole position.

‘It’s great to see George in P2 and that we managed to lock out the front row for the team. I’m not really surprised to see him up there, he kept improving throughout the weekend and particularly through qualifying.

‘We’re starting on the Medium tyre tomorrow, which should put us in a good position in terms of strategy. Max is going to have an advantage for the race start itself with the softer tyre, but we think for the race overall we’re on the better tyre.

‘The track is quite bumpy and it’s actually fairly easy to follow other cars thanks to the tow, but we’re in the best possible position for tomorrow and are looking forward to a fun race.’

Career Best Qualifying Result For George Russell

George Russell turned his first ever Q3 appearance into P2 on the grid, securing the 12th front row lockout of the season for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.

‘Valtteri has pushed Lewis a huge amount in qualifying over the years, so I’m really pleased to have finished Q3 just behind him and to be on the front row for tomorrow.

‘It’s been incredibly intense with so much to learn and such a different way of driving in this car. I tried a lot of things in FP3, which didn’t go well at all. After final practice, I’d have been happy to just get through to Q3, so I was a bit nervous heading into qualifying.

‘But I managed to get in the groove and was getting better and better every lap.

‘Obviously, I’m a bit gutted to miss out on pole by 20 milliseconds, but if you’d told me last week that I’d be qualifying P2 on the grid, I wouldn’t have believed you. I’ve got nobody in front of me tomorrow, which I’ve not experienced for a long time.

‘It’s going to be a really tricky race on such a short track layout, but we’re in a good position starting on the Mediums. I’ll give it my all and see what I can do.’