George Russell was "gutted" to miss out on pole position at the Sakhir Grand Prix by such a small margin but proud of his efforts after an "incredibly intense" two days.

The Williams driver is replacing world champion Lewis Hamilton, who has tested positive for coronavirus, this weekend.

Russell finished just 0.026 seconds behind Valtteri Bottas in qualifying on Saturday as Mercedes impressively locked out the front row with Max Verstappen just behind in third for Red Bull.

The 22-year-old expects to find it more difficult in Sunday's race as he adapts to making a frantic change of teams after the withdrawal of Hamilton, who has won the last five Formula One races.

"It has been incredibly intense," said Russell. "There has been so much to learn and get used to with the car, the seat – everything is so different. 

"The car felt alien to begin with. It is a really different way of driving. I had 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 at all, so to be honest would have been happy with just making Q3 after final practice.

"So I am really pleased – pretty much got it all together on the final lap in Q3. Obviously gutted to miss out on pole by 20 milliseconds but If you told me last week I would get P2 I wouldn't have believed you.

"Valtteri has pushed Lewis a huge amount in qualifying over the years and we all know how great Lewis is. Statistically there has only been one tenth between them.

"To be right behind Valtteri, coming in last minute, two days of preparation, I am pleased. 

"I will have nobody in front of me [on my side of the grid] which I have not experienced for a long, long time. It is going to be really tricky. I feel most comfortable with qualifying, giving it everything you've got. 

"Sunday you need more control and finesse but I haven't had that experience yet, so we will see what I can do."

Bottas revealed he had tried to avoid distractions on a dramatic week in the Mercedes camp, with much talk about the pressure he is under to beat the team's developmental driver Russell, who is expected to secure a permanent drive in the future.

"It was a different situation to have a new team-mate, but I just wanted to focus [all my preparation] on my own doing, ot to waste energy anywhere else and I think I managed to do that," said the Finn.

"Strategy-wise we are in a great place as a team, it's good see George locking out the front row as well. 

"It is good to be on pole and I'm happy with that. Not one of my best qualifying sessions but happy it was enough. Now it is a bit of an unknown how the racing is going to be." 

Verstappen was himself just 0.056s behind Bottas in an incredibly close Q3 on a race weekend which is being held on a different, shorter track configuration to the one used for the Bahrain Grand Prix at the same venue last week.

"From our side we had a good qualifying," said the Dutchman. "It's a very short lap, not many corners. I always try and be as close as I can [to Mercedes] and it was a bit closer than normal.

"Sunday we are starting on different tyres [softs], it's gonna be quite interesting how it's gonna play out for us. We have nothing to lose."