After six red flags due to many incidents around the Baku street circuit, it was inevitable that Max Verstappen came out on top with pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The reigning world champion scored a dramatic pole position in a messy qualifying in Baku, ahead of Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson.
Sainz looked set for pole after being one of the only drivers to get a dry lap in during Q3 session affected by crashes and rain, but in the final seconds of qualifying Verstappen denied the Williams driver with a shock pole.
After six red flags had already caused long delays, drops of rain further derailed Q3 as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc saw his chance for a fifth consecutive Baku pole ended in the Turn 15 barrier, which had already affected many throughout the session.
Leclerc’s crash was a big moment, as the ensuing red flag meant only Sainz, Lawson and Hadjar were able to finish their laps. And with the rain then intensifying it looked as though their grid positions were locked in.
But the light shower soon halted and the delay to repair the Turn 15 barriers meant there was still a window for the heavy hitters to strike.
As qualifying got underway once more championship leader Oscar Piastri looked the fastest car on track in sector one, but the McLaren driver misjudged his braking into Turn 3 and slammed into the outside wall.
That caused another red flag with three minutes, 41 seconds left on the clock, leaving just enough time for one more run, while Sainz was still on for pole in case of another interruption.
With more rain drops affecting grip levels, the likes of Lando Norris and George Russell missed out, but Red Bull’s Verstappen found enough to beat Sainz’s time to deny the Williams driver and taking his first-ever Baku pole for Red Bull.
Lawson was a brilliant third after improving his lap time, followed by Mercedes duo Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Russell, and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda.
Norris was unable to take advantage on title rival Piastri’s crash and only qualified seventh followed by Hadjar and Piastri, while Leclerc was P10.
Even before the rain came, the treacherous gust of winds had already wreaked havoc. Q2 was red-flagged before cars had started a flying lap, with Haas driver Oliver Bearman breaking his suspension after a tap with the Turn 2 exit wall.
As the session resumed Leclerc provided further proof of the lack of grip by going off in Turn 1, accidentally also neutering Hamilton’s first flyer behind him, while on his next lap the Monegasque went straight on a Turn 3, putting himself under huge pressure.
On his final effort Leclerc did advance, moving up to fifth, while Hamilton was one of the victims of his teammate’s late flying lap, being dumped out in P12 alongside Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
In the second Red Bull under-pressure Tsunoda did managed to get through in P10, while Gabriel Bortoleto, Lance Stroll and Bearman followed the two world champions out.
Meanwhile, Verstappen advanced as the pacesetter in Q2, with his medium-tyre lap 0.141 seconds quicker than soft-tyred Norris and Piastri.
The first qualifying session was quickly red flagged for Alex Albon, who wrecked the front-left corner of his Williams against the inside wall at Turn 1.
After a brief delay all remaining cars got a banker lap in, with Hamilton going top for Ferrari, before a second red flag came out for an off by Nico Hulkenberg at Turn 4, breaking his Sauber’s front wing.
With six minutes remaining Antonelli was in danger of being eliminated after seeing his lap time deleted for crossing track limits. But the Mercedes driver delivered a clean lap to advance, as did fellow rookie Bortoleto.
Alpine’s Franco Colapinto did not follow their example after a bizarre Turn 4 incident. After teammate Pierre Gasly had gone off ahead of him, Franco then clattered into the outside wall at the same corner. Both Alpines were stuck in the drop zone as a result, with Esteban Ocon also eliminated alongside Hulkenberg and Albon.
So a crazy qualifiyng session that nearly took two hours to resolved due to the many red flags and yet it was Max Verstappen who finished in pole position. Kudos to Carlos Sainz achieving an excellent front row slot for Williams with Liam Lawson getting an impressive P3 for Racing Bulls.
As for the McLarens, Lando Norris was unable to take advantage from Oscar Piastri’s mistake in Q3 and is only P7, just two positions ahead of his teammate. With the mixed up grid, the Baku race is going to exciting.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:41.117
2 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:41.595
3 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:41.707
4 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:41.717
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:42.070
6 Yuki Tsuonda Red Bull 1:42.143
7 Lando Norris McLaren 1:42.239
8 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 1:42.372
9 Oscar Piastri McLaren No time
10 Charles Leclerc Ferrari No time
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:41.857
12 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:42.183
13 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber 1:42.277
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:43.061
15 Oliver Bearman Haas No time
16 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1:42.779
17 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:42.916
18 Esteban Ocon Haas 1:43.004
19 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:43.139
20 Alexander Albon Williams 1:43.778
Max Verstappen denied Carlos Sainz a shock pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as Drivers’ Championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed out.
The Red Bull driver claimed back-to-back pole positions after a thrilling Qualifying session which was impacted by an F1 record of six red flags, the final one having huge ramifications on the final order.
With Sainz, Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar having set laps in Q3 and drops of rain starting to fall, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc hit the barrier at Turn 15 to bring out the red flag and prevent anyone else from finishing a lap time.
When the session resumed, Lando Norris and Verstappen were setting fastest sector times but dramatically, Piastri hit the barrier at Turn 3 to cause another stoppage with less than four minutes left on the clock.
With the green light back on, track conditions were far from their optimal and drivers scrambled to find the grip, with Verstappen setting a 1m 41.117s to deny Sainz pole by just under half a second.
Lawson improved with his second lap to remain third, ahead of the Mercedes cars of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell and the second Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda.
Norris failed to capitalise on his team mate’s pivotal error with a scrappy lap that left him only P7 in front of Hadjar and the timeless Piastri and Leclerc.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-denies-sainz-shock-pole-as-piastri-crashes-in-thrilling-baku.bfgaf1bJdy2PhxzsVuAcC
Current championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying during Q3.
The Australian driver crashed head-on into the wall at Turn 3, causing significant damage to the front of the car. He quickly confirmed that he was OK and was able to exit the car unassisted.
Piastri’s team-mate and championship rival Lando Norris had been on a flying lap, completing purple sectors at the time of the crash, but the red flag hindered his chances of taking provisional pole. Once Piastri’s McLaren is cleared from the track and the session resumes, there will be just 3m41s left on the clock.
Piastri has had a tricky weekend so far after encountering a power unit issue during practice.
“I think I just braked a little bit late. I have not seen any data or anything but normally what happens when you end up locking a brake, it’s a bit late so yeah just disappointing obviously. I felt like the car was in a good place and yeah disappointing way to end,” Piastri explained to Sky Sports F1 after qualifying.
“I mean the first two corners were really good and then I don’t know if I just tried a bit too much or the rain has been around so there’s some corners even in the out lap that felt a little bit tricky,” he added when asked if he was expecting more grip on the soft tyre.
“But I don’t know if that was one of them necessarily so yeah ultimately I need to go and have a look but I think just a case of trying a little bit too hard.”
Looking ahead to the race, he continued, “I think the win is ambitious but let’s wait and see how qualifying shakes out first. I think we can definitely make progress, the car has been quick this weekend so hopefully we can use that to make some progress.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/oscar-piastri-crashes-out-of-azerbaijan-gp-qualifying-in-huge-blow-to-championship-fight/10760975/
After a chaotic qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton will start his Baku race from a disappointing P12. But despite this, he is surprisingly confident as he sees a silver lining around the dark cloud hanging over the windy city.
“I honestly thought I was going to be fighting for the top three today,” Hamilton said. “I thought I might be able to get pole today, that’s how much – I’ve not felt that all year.”
Angling the blame away from his own driving, he instead pointed to the team’s execution.
“It’s definitely tough to be in 12th, but as I said, I don’t think that’s from my driving, it’s just execution needed to be better.”
Despite starting in the dangerous middle of the pack, the Ferrari driver is keen to utilise the final straight to push up the grid.
“It’s a great race this one. So, I’m really hoping my pace was decent on P2, race pace, we were quickest. So, I’m really hoping tomorrow that we’ve got decent pace, good straightline speed, we should hopefully be able to fight cars.
“You know, so much can happen here with safety cars and all sorts of strategy can really come into play. So, I’m just going to come into it as optimistic as possible, and I’m still going to try and get into the top three. That’s been my goal all week.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lewis-hamilton-focuses-on-silver-linings-insists-pole-was-possible-at-azerbaijan-gp-qualifying/10761037/
McLaren’s Lando Norris doesn’t see his seventh place on the Azerbaijan Grand Prix grid as a missed opportunity to claw back his Formula 1 deficit to championship-leading team-mate Oscar Piastri.
Piastri crashed out in Q3, which relegated the Australian to ninth on the grid. With Norris having to make up a 31-point gap in the standings, the incident gave the Briton an opportunity to put some distance between himself and his title rival on the grid to gain as many points as possible.
But Norris only managed seventh on his final flyer, meaning he will start directly in front of Piastri on Sunday while Max Verstappen overhauled Carlos Sainz to deny Williams a shock pole.
Norris slipped up in Turn 15 – which had already claimed Charles Leclerc – costing him valuable tenths. But overall, the McLaren driver struggled for grip as he conceded over a second to Verstappen’s Red Bull, which he ascribed to his decision to be the first car in line for the final Q3 run, just as light rain further disrupted the chaotic session.
That’s why Norris strongly dismissed suggestions that Saturday was a missed opportunity. “No, because I still did everything I could,” he replied philosophically. “If I’d won every race, I could be world champion by now. But I didn’t, you know?
“I went out first and it was just the wrong decision to make in the end. If everyone else got a yellow [flag] behind because someone else went off behind me, you wouldn’t be asking me this question. Sometimes it goes your way around here, sometimes it doesn’t.
“We thought we took a better option. I think it would have been if it wasn’t spitting, but it just started to spit again before the final run and then going out first is just the incorrect thing.
“It’s something we’ll learn from, but the opportunity is there every single weekend to be on pole. I try and do that every weekend, and today I struggled more because of not making the best decision. But that’s a hindsight thing, not an incorrect one at the time.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/-missed-opportunity-or-wrong-call-why-norris-couldnt-benefit-from-piastris-baku-f1-crash/10761041/