Charles Leclerc earned his third successive Baku pole position by beating Max Verstappen. The Ferrari driver will start in P1 following Friday’s qualifying session based on the new sprint weekend format.
This is the first weekend run to the latest sprint format, with another qualifying session on Saturday for the shorten, racing event.
Leclerc secured his first Formula 1 pole of the season on his final effort of the session, with a time of one minute, 40.203 seconds, having ratcheted up his pace from a strong opening run in the last part of qualifying to prove unassailable for the two Red Bull drivers.
On their first flying runs of Q3, Verstappen and Leclerc set identical times – both crossing the timing line with a one minute, 40.445 seconds apiece, with Perez a tenth behind. Leclerc had the whip hand over Verstappen in the opening sector, but the defending champion had the monopoly over the remaining sectors.
Leclerc was the first of the trio to begin his final hot lap, crucially flipping the Red Bull’s advantage in the second sector to go over two tenths faster than his first run.
Perez went quicker than Leclerc in the first sector but was comparatively slower in the second sector and could only match the Ferrari driver in the final part of the lap.
Verstappen’s final sector was quickest, but the second sector once again proved to be the difference – the reigning champion could not find enough time over the remaining parts of the lap to overturn that disadvantage.
An one minute, 40.391 seconds was enough for Verstappen to beat Perez to the front row, however, and the latter will start Sunday’s race next to Carlos Sainz.
Sainz had been unable to improve on his first lap, one minute 41.016 seconds, but it was enough to keep a second-row slot away from Lewis Hamilton.
The Mercedes driver had improved in Q3 having come perilously close to being knocked out in Q2, with the W14 matching the leaders’ pace in the final sector.
He starts alongside Fernando Alonso on the grid for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Aston Martin driver losing time in the middle sector relative to his former McLaren team-mate.
Lando Norris led the line for McLaren, which had got two cars into the final part of qualifying having been bolstered by new updates, Norris qualifying seventh ahead of an impressive Yuki Tsunoda.
Lance Stroll struggled with an unresponsive DRS and could only manage ninth on the grid, ahead of Oscar Piastri, who completed the top half of the field.
George Russell was the biggest casualty of Q2, having been disposed of through late laps from Piastri and Tsunoda, and the Mercedes driver was not able to improve on his own fastest lap to break back into the top ten.
He crucially remained clear of Esteban Ocon, who reported a brush with the wall in a messy session for the Alpine team, while Alex Albon could not break out of the drop zone despite impressive straightline pace in his Williams. Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant were the other casualties from Q2.
Nyck de Vries buried his AlphaTauri in the Turn 3 exit wall halfway through Q1 to bring out a red flag, without a representative lap on the board. De Vries had to be pushed back into the garage while preparing to get out on track, citing a brake-by-wire issue.
After the session resumed, Pierre Gasly – having barely factored in practice after suffering a hydraulic leak – was next to produce a stoppage hitting the wall at Turn 3, tearing off his right-hand sidepod and part of his rear wing.
Sainz had his own near-miss in the meantime, enduring a slide on the exit of Turn 1 but managed to keep his car out of the wall.
Both Haas cars were from the first part of qualifying, Kevin Magnussen having suffered from an engine issue earlier in the session. Although K-Mag reported that the car felt fine, his team told him not to risk it and pulled him into the garage, leaving him unable to better his time from the opening phase of the session.
Nico Hulkenberg was on the brink of the drop as Alfa Romeo pair Zhou Guanyu and Bottas occupied the elimination zone, and Hulk’s poor first sector effectively ended his chances of evading an early bath.
The Alfa pair initially escaped the bottom five, but Piastri’s final effort was enough to push Zhou back into P16, two hundredths of a second off Ocon.
So congratulations to Charles Leclerc with this pole position. Another qualifying session takes place on Saturday which sets the grid for the sprint race but this result determined the starting order for the main Grand Prix event.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:40.203
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:40.391
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:40.495
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:41.016
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:41.177
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:41.253
7 Lando Norris McLaren 1:41.281
8 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:41.581
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:41.611
10 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:41.611
11 George Russell Mercedes 1:41.654
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:41.798
13 Alexander Albon Williams 1:41.818
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:42.259
15 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:42.395
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:42.642
17 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:42.755
18 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:43.417
19 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:44.853
20 Nyck De Vries AlphaTauri 1:55.282
Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Charles Leclerc claimed pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after getting the better of Max Verstappen in a thrilling, hotly-contested qualifying session on Friday evening, making it three poles on the bounce at the Baku City Circuit.
With the Red Bull faster in a straight line, but the Ferrari quicker through the corners, a fascinating battle developed over the course of an incident-packed qualifying hour on the shores of the Caspian Sea – and it was Leclerc who ultimately came out on top.
Incredibly, Verstappen and Leclerc posted identical 1m 40.445s lap times during their first Q3 runs, only for Leclerc to step forward with a 1m 40.203s on the decisive final laps, putting him 0.188s up on Verstappen.
With Leclerc adding to his 2021 and 2022 poles at the venue, Verstappen settling for second and Sergio Perez securing third in the other Red Bull, it was Carlos Sainz who took the ‘best of the rest’ spot, some eight tenths off the pace of his Ferrari team mate.
Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were fifth and sixth respectively for Mercedes and Aston Martin, McLaren’s Lando Norris and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda took eye-catching P7 and P8 spots, with Lance Stroll and Oscar Piastri rounding out the top 10 positions.
While Hamilton featured in the top 10 shootout, it was an early qualifying bath for his team mate, George Russell, who had to settle for 11th on the grid, ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and the Williams of Alex Albon, who ran firmly inside the top 10 in Q1 but lamented traffic on his last Q2 lap.
Valtteri Bottas was the lead Alfa Romeo in 14th place, with Logan Sargeant securing the first Q2 appearance of his burgeoning F1 career en route to 15th – making up for drama-filled sessions in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia.
Zhou Guanyu missed the Q2 cut by just 0.020s after recovering from a spin and a near-miss with the barriers, leaving him 16th, while Haas lost both Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen at the first hurdle – the latter hindered by technical issues throughout Q1.
Pierre Gasly and Nyck de Vries will form the final row of the grid for Sunday’s race, with the Alpine and AlphaTauri drivers crashing out separately at Turn 3 in the opening phase – both incidents bringing out the red flags and interrupting the action.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.leclerc-beats-verstappen-in-qualifying-thriller-for-third-straight.3gs3c3VoT4STCLv4713rcV.html
Charles Leclerc surprised by Azerbaijan Grand Prix pole having targeted Aston Martin and Mercedes. Motorsport.com has the details.
Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc says his pole position for the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix comes as a “really good surprise” after initially only targeting Aston Martin and Mercedes.
Leclerc had previously set an identical Q3 time with rival Max Verstappen as both drivers notched a 1m40.445s, but it was the Red Bull racer who lapped first to provisionally hold the top spot.
But Leclerc fought back in the dying moments with a personal best first and final sector in addition to running faster than anyone through the middle part of the lap to bank a 1m40.203s to pip Verstappen by 0.188s.
This was helped by both Verstappen and his team-mate Sergio Perez dropping time in the second sector to fall short of their personal best time.
Leclerc said the pre-weekend team target had been to beat Aston Martin and Mercedes, leaving him shocked to have scored his first pole since Singapore in 2022 and to have ended the Red Bull qualifying streak in the early part of this season.
“I’m surprised,” he said. “We came into the weekend thinking that it will be a great weekend if we are in front of Aston and Mercedes in qualifying and, at the end, we are on pole, so it’s a really good surprise.”
However, Leclerc did lower expectations for the full grand prix on Sunday as he acknowledged that the race pace of the RB19 was still likely to trump that of his SF-23 machine.
He continued: “We must not forget that our race car is maybe still behind the Red Bulls, so it’s going to be difficult to keep the lead but that’s the target and really, really happy with the lap.
“It’s a very challenging weekend overall for us drivers because very little time to practice [with the changes to the sprint race event timetable].
“We only had one practice and then you need to be straight on it, but the feeling was good since the start so really, really happy.”
With Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz clocking fourth behind Perez, Leclerc added: “It’s going be challenging because we haven’t run the medium [tyre compound] yet.
“So tomorrow in qualifying [for the sprint race] will be the first time and we need to be on it because we only have one set. So, no room for mistake.
“But again, the pace seems strong. So, hopefully we can learn in Q1 and Q2 and then push in Q3 and we know the car is good.”
Max Verstappen thinks a different approach to his final Q3 out-lap in qualifying for Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix may have cost him as he ceded pole to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
World champion Verstappen held on to provisional pole after the first of two hotlaps with a 1m40.445s in his Red Bull RB19, with Leclerc posting an identical lap time to go second, because the Dutchman had set the time first.
On the deciding run Verstappen could only find a minimal improvement to a 1m40.391s, while his Ferrari rival put two tenths on him with a 1m40.203s.
It’s the first time this season that Red Bull has failed to grab pole, with Ferrari having the edge on the world champions through Baku’s tight corners.
Afterwards Verstappen explained a different approach on his out-lap may have cost him time.
“It’s always tough around here to really put the whole lap together,” he said. “I think also the second run we tried something different on the out-lap, which maybe was not ideal for the lap time at the end.
“But around here, it’s just really hard. In Q3, you’re on the limit and then trying to make everything perfect; it’s not the easiest.
“But nevertheless, we’re P2 we know that we have a very good race car. So, all in all, it’s not bad, but you always want to start ahead, but we’ll have to pass one car.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-tried-something-different-on-baku-f1-qualifying-outlap/10461861/