Polesitter Bottas admits Sakhir GP qualifying “not my best” in F1

Valtteri Bottas admitted his performance during qualifying for the Sakhir Grand Prix was “not my best” in Formula 1, despite taking pole position.

The Finn narrowly beat Mercedes new boy George Russell - standing in for Lewis Hamilton for the weekend after the seven-time world champion contracted coronavirus - by just 0.026s in an incredibly tight qualifying session around Bahrain’s shorter Outer Loop circuit.

Although he claimed his fourth pole position of the year, and his first since last month’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, Bottas conceded it was far from his best Saturday showing of his F1 career.

"For sure it's a different situation to have a new team-mate but ultimately I just wanted to focus on my own doing, and not to waste energy anywhere else, and I think I managed to do that,” Bottas said.

"I think strategy wise we are in a great place as a team and good to see George locking out the front row as well. It's good to be on pole, I'm happy for that but not my best qualifying. I'm happy it was enough.”

Bottas said he was the only driver who did not receive a tow from a car ahead on his final qualifying run of Q3 as he failed to improve his time.

“I think the main thing was that there were no cars ahead of me, so no tow at all,” he explained. “I could see and feel that I was not so fast on the straights.

“The corners were still quite OK, although I didn’t quite nail Turn Seven/Turn Eight and maybe the exit of Turn Ten as well.

“To be honest it’s quite a tricky circuit to get everything right, with the twisty sections and everything but, like I said before, I’m just happy it was enough for pole.”