Valtteri Bottas was happy his best lap in Q3 was enough to claim pole after a less than perfect qualifying for the Sakhir Grand Prix.
Having been outshone by stand-in teammate George Russell on Friday, the Finn asserted himself at Mercedes in final practice and was quicker than the Brit in all three parts of qualifying.
However, the final margin between the pair was just 0.026s in Bottas' favour at the end of Q3, and the 31-year-old put his result down to blocking out the noise coming from across the garage.
“For sure it’s a different situation having a new teammate, but I just wanted to focus on my own doing, not to waste energy anywhere else,” Bottas told Sky Sports.
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“I think I managed to do that, I think strategy-wise we are in a great place as a team, and it’s good to see George locking the front row as well.
“It’s good to be on pole, I’m happy with that, not one of my best qualifyings but I’m happy it was enough.”
Of course, for this weekend's second race in Bahrain, F1 is using the short 3.5km Outer Circuit, which is made up of the three longest straight and a technical sector at the top of the hill.
And with a mammoth 87 laps coming on Sunday, Bottas admits an unpredictable race is in store.
“It’s a bit of an unknown really how the racing is going to be,” he said.
“It didn’t feel it’s that easy to follow other cars so I’m really pleased to be on pole so I can go from there.
“Probably we will see a fun race, it feels like a bit of a Mickey Mouse track in a way, it’s quite bumpy and twisty.”
