The critical area that Russell and Mercedes must ace in the Sakhir GP

For a dead rubber event, the penultimate round of the 2020 Formula 1 season has an unusually high number of storylines to track. And the main one for the Sakhir Grand Prix is at Mercedes, where Valtteri Bottas has been joined by George Russell after Lewis Hamilton's positive test for COVID-19 following his win in the first Bahrain race.

The headlines after the first two practice sessions of F1's third repeat venue visit in this most unusual of seasons - although of course this weekend action is taking place on the shorter, 2.202-mile 'outer loop' layout - show that Russell is on top.

He was the fastest driver in both FP1 and FP2, but, as ever in F1, it's not quite as simple as it looks. Although, it was fairly obvious to see that Bottas went faster in FP2 before having his best time deleted for running too wide at the exit of Turn 8, where the outer loop re-joins the traditional Bahrain track.

"I've found it good, to be honest," Russell said of his first day as a Mercedes race driver. "I'm working with the best in the business, and I'm working so much every single lap I'm in the car.

"I do think the lap times are a little bit deceiving at the moment, and aren't a true representation of the pace. I thought FP2 was not a great session for me. I struggled, especially in the high fuel, and ultimately that's going to be the key on Sunday. Still got a lot of work to do to get comfortable in the car, get comfortable with the set-up, make some improvements, because I think tomorrow is going to be a different story."

Such a reaction is not out of character for Russell, who is generally open, honest and analytical in his public utterances. Mercedes reported that he was as calm and level-headed as it expected - not overawed by being given responsibility for the world champion's W11 for at least one weekend.

Overall fastest times

1. Mercedes (Russell) 54.546s (FP1)
2. Red Bull (Verstappen) 54.722s (FP1)
3. Racing Point (Perez) 54.866s
4. Renault (Ocon) 54.940s
5. AlphaTauri (Kvyat) 55.011s (FP1)
6. McLaren (Sainz) 55.258s
7. Ferrari (Vettel) 55.281s (FP1)
8. Alfa Romeo (Raikkonen) 55.484s
9. Haas (Magnussen) 55.738s
10. Williams (Latifi) 55.784s

In fact, judging by Bottas losing all his soft tyre runs to track limits violations in FP2, and the two offs he had during a fairly ragged race run afterwards in that session, it looks as if it's the regular Mercedes driver that is struggling more at this stage. But, then again, given he was able to go quickest on the 54.506s that was 0.207s faster than Russell's session-topping 54.713s in FP2 (the day's best time was the 54.546s the Briton did in FP1) before it was deleted in a very close call for track limits suggests Bottas is learning to push the limits to the maximum.

It appears there is significant time to be found on the exit of Turn 8, which is why the FIA stepped to enforce track limits at this spot following the end of FP1 (and as a result meant the day's best time wasn't bettered in FP2, according to Pirelli). That area is also something of a car-breaker - as Bottas found out when he damaged his floor during an off-track moment there in FP1, which goes some way to explaining his P4 in the opening session.

In FP2, Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Alex Albon went wide chasing time at this spot, while Charles Leclerc could not set a time in the second session after damaging the driveshaft on his Ferrari when he went wide onto the Turn 8 runoff. It seems the gap between the kerb and the painted concrete runoff is steeper than it appears to the TV picture, and so any cars bouncing over this discrepancy run the risk of floor or drivetrain damage.

If Mercedes locks out the front row - the start will likely be critical to the outcome of the race, as it always is. But a 1-2 in qualifying is also not a given thanks to the short and tough track

"For me, it was quite a tricky day," said Bottas. "In the first session, in the first run, I broke the floor of the car [when] I went over the kerbs in Turn 8, so a big piece was missing. Then the rest of FP1 was a bit of a waste.

"Then FP2, it felt quite OK. Obviously I didn't get any laps on the soft tyre, [but] I had one half decent lap, but that was deleted for track limits. So not really the best day, but at least the long runs were pretty consistent. Although Red Bull on the medium tyre looked pretty quick."

Red Bull indeed looks to be a serious threat to Mercedes based on the long run averages below, but sticking with the Sakhir event's headline story so far and the overall takeaway from the opening day of practice is how close things are between Russell and Bottas.

It's so tight between the Mercedes duo on ultimate pace that when considering the outer loop lap is so short, any error from either is going to be very costly come qualifying - where traffic is predicted to be a nightmare, especially in Q1. So, Bottas needs to cut out the mistakes to be sure of the best grid spot, while it may be that Russell is still building up to getting as close as he can to the lap time limit.

On long-run pace, Bottas edged Russell on both soft and hard long run averages - but only just. There was very little between them, 0.021s, on the harder rubber - and Bottas had a scrappy run on this compound, going off twice towards the end of FP2. He did have a 0.42s average advantage on the softs compared to Russell, but Mercedes put this difference down to the Williams regular getting stuck in a queue of cars and his times suffering as a result.

Russell's first day for the second Bahrain race was slightly different than would've been the case had Hamilton been in the car. He ran with DAS equipped on Friday, while Bottas did not - which is down to Mercedes dropping the system on certain Fridays to prepare for it being gone completely in 2021. But the team left DAS on Russell's car so he could get used to it. Bottas will get it back from tomorrow onwards.

Both drivers completed a standard programme in terms of arrangement given they had a new track to learn, but Russell did a few more practice starts than would usually be the case so he could adapt to Mercedes' procedures.

And this will be a critical area to watch in Sunday's race. Mercedes' drivers haven't had the easiest time launching the W11 in 2020 - with Bottas struggling at the Hungaroring, Barcelona, Monza and last weekend, although it must be said that Hamilton has had bad ones too, in his case at Mugello and Imola. But when they get everything right, the W11 shoots off the line - as Hamilton showed twice in the Bahrain GP.

Russell has struggled with starts at Williams this season, blaming a sensitive and inconsistent starting system after dropping down the order at the initial getaway six days ago. And this has historically been a feature of his short career so far (in 2017, when he won GP3 as a rookie, he regularly lost places off the line as he took a while to adjust to a hand-operated clutch).

So, if Mercedes locks out the front row - the start will likely be critical to the outcome of the race, as it always is. But a 1-2 in qualifying is also not a given thanks to the short and tough track.

Soft tyre order

1. Red Bull 58.278s 12 laps
2. McLaren 58.426s 7 laps
3. Renault 58.531s 14 laps
4. Mercedes 58.560s 10 laps
5. AlphaTauri 58.647s 14 laps
6. Racing Point 58.658s 13 laps
7. Haas 59.148s 15 laps
8. Williams 59.290s 14 laps
9. Alfa Romeo 59.429s 15 laps
*Ferrari N/A

In any case, based on the Friday race pace averages, Red Bull would be quickly homing in on the Mercedes duo if were to start behind.

The team topped the soft tyre order (above) and it's important to note here that tyre degradation for the Sakhir event is lower overall than it was last weekend. And it's also worth remembering that it was the same soft tyres that McLaren's Carlos Sainz Jr made surprise use of in the last race - which was important to his great rise up the order.

Pirelli reckons that even though degradation is better on the Sakhir layout, where energy demands on the rubber are lower overall, it will more than likely still be a two stop race due to the venue's very abrasive surface.

So, with that in mind, we could see Mercedes/Red Bull trying the Q2 trick of getting by on the mediums, as the deficit between the compounds is small thanks to the short layout. But it seems anyone starting on the softs isn't at a major disadvantage.

At Renault, there was a pace difference between Ricciardo and Ocon that the team put down to Ricciardo trying something experimental in set-up Renault will likely take off for the rest of the weekend

The big question is where Red Bull really stands, as it has often looked to be ahead of Mercedes on Fridays only to be soundly beaten on Sundays. This could be down to the team running an engine mode in practice that is closer to its race one than Mercedes does, its fuel loads being lighter, or just being quicker on the day.

Verstappen was happier on the longer runs but will want Red Bull to fix the understeer he encountered on his flying laps in FP2 to try and get amongst the Mercedes cars in qualifying.

"It was tricky out there and balance wise we haven't quite found the optimum set-up, especially on the short runs," he explained. "The long runs were definitely an improvement and looked quite good this evening but even there we can do better. The track is not the most exciting to drive and because it is such a short lap the radio is constantly open with traffic warnings about other cars."

Medium tyre order

1. Red Bull 57.814s 15 laps
2. Renault 58.198s 21 laps
3. Alfa Romeo 58.330s 20 laps
4. AlphaTauri 58.405s 18 laps
5. Racing Point 58.470s 21 laps
6. McLaren 58.985s 10 laps
7. Williams 59.032s 20 laps
8. Haas 59.507s 14 laps
9. Ferrari 59.552s 16 laps
*Mercedes N/A

When considering the battle for third in the constructors' championship, McLaren can take heart by its soft tyre average long run pace, while Renault looks great in the medium averages (above), and Racing Point had the edge on one-lap speed.

At Renault, there was a pace difference between Ricciardo and Ocon that the team put down to Ricciardo trying something experimental in set-up Renault will likely take off for the rest of the weekend, while McLaren lost time on Lando Norris's car in FP2 fitting a new floor after his early off, then having to stop his session after an engine issue was spotted.

At the back of the pack, the drivers making their F1 debuts were slower than their team-mates, as you'd expect, in the long run averages. But Jack Aitken looked a step closer to Nicholas Latifi at Williams than Pietro Fittipaldi was to Kevin Magnussen at Haas.