George Russell was left “gutted” to be within 0.026s of pole position for Sunday’s Sakhir Grand Prix after being pipped by Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

Standing in as seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton’s replacement, Russell’s first qualifying session for Mercedes ended with him securing a spot on the front row.

Having previously qualified no higher than 11th for Williams, it marked a career-best result for the Briton, who admitted he’d headed into qualifying with low expectations after a struggling in final practice.

“It is a really different way of driving, to be honest,” said Russell. “I’m trying to unlearn what I learned at Williams, and relearn how to drive this car fast.

“I tried a lot of things in FP3 and it didn’t go well so, to be honest, I’d have been happy just to get through to Q3 after final practice.

“But no, I’m really pleased. We got it pretty much all together on the final lap. Obviously gutted to miss out on pole by 20 milliseconds, but if you told me last week I’ll be qualifying P2 on the grid next week, I think I wouldn’t believe you.”

The result ended Russell’s record of never being out-qualified by a team-mate in Formula 1, but he was nevertheless happy to be close to Bottas’s pace.

“Valtteri has pushed Lewis a huge amount in qualifying over the years, I think statistically there’s only been a tenth between them,” Russell said.

“We all know how great Lewis so, just to be right behind Valtteri, coming in last minute, two days of prep I’m pleased, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

Russell acknowledged it would be “really tricky” to hold position having not started as high on the grid since his championship-winning Formula 2 season in 2018.

“I’ve got nobody in front of me tomorrow, which I’ve not experienced for a long, long time,” Russell said.

“It’s going to be really tricky. Qualifying is what I feel most comfortable with as it’s just balls out everything you’ve got.

“Tomorrow, you need a bit more control, a bit more finesse, and I’m just haven’t had experience yet. I will give it my all and see what I can do.”