George Russell put his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the limelight and impressed everyone else as he led the times in both sessions of a record-breaking training day at the Sakhir Grand Prix.
The 22-year-old Brit replaced coronavirus-stricken Lewis Hamilton, outperforming all of his rivals with a dazzling pace and poise on the high-speed short-lap outer lap of the Bahrain International Circuit.
His time of just 54.713 seconds was the shortest lap of the season and was well within the time set by Niki Lauda with the fastest lap pole time in Formula 1, which was set at the 1974 French Grand Prix.
Russell wasn’t fired by Williams until Monday, but showed no signs of nervousness in Hamilton’s title-winning car, despite being significantly taller than the seven-time world champion and having to wear racing shoes that were smaller than usual to squeeze into the car.
He surpassed Red Bull’s second-placed Max Verstappen by 0.323 seconds, while Bottas fought for a clean time lap and ended up in 11th place. His two best laps – both faster than Russell’s – were eliminated because he had exceeded the track limits.
Sergio Perez was third for Racing Point ahead of Esteban Ocon from Renault, Alex Albon in the second Red Bull and Daniil Kvyat from Alpha Tauri, Lance Stroll seventh for Racing Point. Daniel Ricciardo was four places behind his Renault team-mate in eighth place.
The session was conducted in warm and dry conditions with no major incident under floodlights after dark. Despite his protests, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff had to see it as a direct competition between Russell and Bottas to impress him.
Pietro Fittipaldi started free practice two early, replacing Haas for Romain Grosjean. He showed real commitment before both Alfa Romeos and Carlos Sainz started lapping in his McLaren.
The Ferrari-bound Spaniard was soon ahead of Stroll and then Perez with his Renault set the pace ahead of Ocon with a lap in 55.2 – three tenths of Russell’s pacemaker efforts in FP1.
Verstappen responded by walking over his car despite a grumble. “I have the same problem I had on Turn One last week,” he said. “It just bounces.”
It allowed Russell to return to the top in 54.7 while Charles Leclerc stayed in the crowd as his Ferrari was being repaired for a “half-wave”.
35 minutes of the remaining 90 minutes, the teams finished their qualifying simulation runs and switched to preparing for the race. Bottas had rubbed off another fast lap because he had strayed off the track before coming in, it seemed almost embarrassed.
Russell’s speed and potential confirmed Mercedes’ view of him as a driver with a great future and left the hapless Bottas facing the possible prospect of not beating him in qualifying on Saturday.
In his two years at Williams, the 22-year-old Englishman has never been beaten by a teammate, even if he has not yet reached a third qualifying top ten shootout. His most recent exploits in landing his Williams in the second quarter of this season earned him the nickname “Mr Saturday”.
Bottas, who has been a pole sitter 15 times in his career, knows that he is facing a difficult challenge if he wants to increase that figure and prevent another Mr Friday from taking the top spot on the grid.
– AFP
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