Formula 1: George Russell pulling a Hamilton at Sakhir GP practice

Mercedes’s stand-in driver George Russell finessed his way through Friday’s Sakhir Grand Prix practice sessions as he prepares for the race proper in Bahrain this weekend.

The Briton knocked off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.128 seconds with Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas finishing in 11th place.

• Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton’s replacement George Russell under ‘no pressure’ heading into Sakhir Grand Prix

It was Verstappen who actually set the quickest lap of the session - about 0.2secs faster than Russell - but the Finn had his time deleted as a penalty for exceeding track limits.

Racing Point’s Sergio Perez finished in third place, just ahead of Renault’s Esteban Ocon who came fourth.

22-year-old Russell totally exceeded expectations with his performance, especially racing in a car he had not driven before, after being brought into the picture as an emergency replacement for Hamilton, who has been forced to sit out the race after returning a positive Covid-19 test.

Bottas started the race looking quicker than his team-mate, albeit mostly struggling through the bumpy middle sector of the new, shorter layout of Bahrain’s F1 track being used for the first time this weekend.

After his error in the middle sector where he slid slightly wide through Turn Eight, Bottas had his time ruled out before Russell took off from where his team-mate left off, setting the pace in the first session.

Russell appeared to be suffering greater tyre degradation as a result of race pace on the soft tire, but the two were closely matched on the hard tyre which will likely be favoured in the race proper.

Bottas also had two mild off-track moments when he slid wide in Turns Five and Six.

“It was quite a tricky day,” said Bottas.

“In the first session, in the first run, I broke the floor going over the kerbs in Turn Eight.”

“Practice two felt OK, I didn’t get any laps on the soft tyre, had one half-decent lap but it got deleted for track limits. The long runs were pretty consistent but Red Bull on the medium tyre looked pretty quick.”

F1 newcomers Pietro Fittipaldi and Jack Aitken finished 18th and 19th for Haas and Williams respectively.

Fittipaldi, the grandson of two-time world champion, Emerson Fittipaldi, was drafted after Romain Grosjean’s horrific crash on the tracks last Sunday, while 25-year-old British-Korean driver Aitken has been handed his chance at Williams following Russell’s switch to Mercedes.