What next for Mercedes, Russell and Bottas?

Sunday's Sakhir Grand Prix wasn't supposed to be a showdown between Valtteri Bottas and George Russell ... at least that's what Mercedes' team principal Toto Wolff kept saying before the race.

But regardless of the intentions, a showdown quickly became the reality. After qualifying 0.026s off Bottas, Russell took the upper in the race and, had it not been for two doses of bad luck, would have won his first grand prix as a Mercedes driver at his first attempt.

In doing so, he put himself in the middle of the conversation about Mercedes' future driver line-up and raised questions over Bottas' position at the team.

One race result could be misleading for a number of reasons -- Bottas has urged…