HIGHLIGHTS: Watch all the action as Bottas beats Russell to pole in Sakhir GP qualifying

Just 0.026s denied George Russell pole position in his very first qualifying session for Mercedes on Saturday, as he was beaten by the smallest of margins by his temporary team mate Valtteri Bottas.

As it is, Russell will line up on the front row of the grid for Sunday's Sakhir Grand Prix, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc behind him on row two.

Qualifying report: Russell misses out on maiden Mercedes pole by 0.02s as Bottas stamps his authority in Sakhir

It was a much tougher session for Alex Albon in the second Red Bull, who only just scraped through into Q2 but then failed to set a lap fast enough for the top 10 shootout, ending up 12th.

The two debutants in the field, Jack Aitken in the Williams, and Pietro Fittipaldi driving for Haas, both kept their noses clean with the former in 18th, just a tenth behind his team mate Nicholas Latifi and the latter in 20th place.

Hit play in the video above to see all the best moments from what was a breathless session on the shortened Bahrain 'Outer Loop' circuit.