George Russell upstaged his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and impressed everyone else on Friday when he topped the times in both sessions of a record-breaking day’s practice at the Sakhir Grand Prix.
Substituting for seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who is sitting out the race after testing positive for COVID-19, the 22-year-old Briton outpaced all of his rivals with a dazzling display of pace and poise on the high-speed short-lap “outer loop” at the Bahrain International Circuit.
His time of just 54.713 seconds represented the briefest lap of the season and was well within the time set by Niki Lauda with the fastest lap pole time in Formula One, set at the 1974 French Grand Prix.
Photo: Reuters
Russell was only released by Williams on Monday, but showed no sign of nerves in Hamilton’s title-winning car, despite being notably taller than Hamilton and having to wear racing shoes a size smaller than usual to squeeze into the car.
He outpaced second-placed Max Verstappen of Red Bull by 0.323 seconds, while Bottas struggled to deliver a clean timed lap and wound up down in 11th, his two best laps — both faster than Russell’s — were eliminated because he exceeded track limits.
Sergio Perez was third for Racing Point ahead of Renault’s Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon in the second Red Bull and Daniil Kvyat of Alpha Tauri, with Lance Stroll seventh for Racing Point.
The session was run in warm and dry conditions without major incident under floodlights after nightfall.
Fittipaldi made an early start to the second practice session, heading out as Romain Grosjean’s substitute for Haas, and showed real commitment before both Alfa Romeos and then Carlos Sainz, in his McLaren, began lapping.
The Ferrari-bound Spaniard was soon topping the times before Stroll and then Perez set the pace ahead of Ocon, in his Renault, with a lap in 55.2 seconds — three-tenths inside Russell’s pace-setting effort in the first practice session.
Verstappen then reacted by going top, despite a grumble about his car.
“I have the same problem as last week out of turn 1,” he said. “It’s just hopping.”
It enabled Russell, in 54.7 seconds, to return to the top, while Charles Leclerc remained among the spectators as his Ferrari was under repairs for a “half shaft” issue.
‘NO MERCEDES SHOOTOUT’
Formula One champions Mercedes are not treating this weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix as a shootout between team regular Valtteri Bottas and super-sub George Russell, team principal Toto Wolff said on Friday.
Russell, 22, is in only his second season in Formula One.
The highly rated Briton, who has impressed at engine customer Williams, is seen as a talent of the future and tipped to one day drive for the main Mercedes team.
That has led to speculation that Russell’s temporary promotion, likely to carry over into the season finale in Abu Dhabi if Hamilton does not return, could be a way for Mercedes to evaluate him directly against Bottas for a seat in 2022.
“There is no shootout,” Wolff told reporters via video conference on Friday.
“If George does well, it’s an indication that one day he’s going to be in a good car and hopefully race for victories and world championships,” Wolff said.
Bottas has won two races to Hamilton’s 11 this season, but has pushed the Briton hard in qualifying.
The Finn will be out of contract at Mercedes at the end of next year, which could open up at least one seat at the world champions for 2022.
Hamilton, out of contract at the end of this year, is yet to sign an extension — but that is expected to be a formality.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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