Contrasting fortunes for Mercedes as George Russell will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from pole position while his teammate and championship rival Kimi Antonelli was forced out following car damage in Q1.
At the 6km Baku City Circuit, Antonelli clipped the barriers on the inside of the Turn 1 left-hander during Q1, unable to return to the pits in his Mercedes W17 with front-left suspension damage. Antonelli had already set a lap time quick enough to advance to Q2, but was out of qualifying and is set to start P16 at best.
After setting the pace through Thursday’s practice sessions, Russell was able to capitalised fully to take a dominant pole ahead of Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri. This was the Mercedes driver’s fifth pole of the season.
McLaren was an early surprise in Q3 when Piastri and Lando Norris jumped early pacesetter Russell to top the first series of qualifying runs. Off the back of a messy practice sessions, the papayas had yet to string together optimal qualifying laps, with Norris even suspecting something was wrong in his car in Q1.
But Piastri’s one minute, 43.571 seconds lap proved an achievable target for Russell to beat, with the Mercedes driver going half a second faster on his second run to set one minute, 43.037 seconds, which none of his competitors could find an answer for.
On the final run, Russell took yet another five-tenth out of his own benchmark to set a dominant one minute, 42.526 seconds pole lap.
Ferrari employed a different run plan by delaying its first run, which benefitted Leclerc in getting provisional second, and he found another tenth that secured that position on the grid ahead of Piastri, despite being eight tenths behind Russell.
Isack Hadjar celebrated his return from wrist injury with fourth on the grid, while Norris slipped up on his final attempt and settled for fifth ahead of Hamilton. Pierre Gasly took seventh for Alpine as Max Verstappen could only manage eighth having been held up by yellow flags for Lando’s off.
Carlos Sainz made full use of the upgraded Williams FW48 to take ninth, as Franco Colapinto qualified tenth.
Russell topped Q2 with a late one minute, 43.462 seconds effort, two tenths ahead of Verstappen as it promised to set up a tight pole shoot-out.
The battle for the final Q3 positions was as close as it has been all season with Williams now in the hunt, and Sainz able to go ninth and claim a rare Q3 appearance. The dramatic rate of track evolution meant drivers were able to find lap time and peak on their final run. In the final moments of the session, Alpine’s Colapinto snatched P10 away from Haas driver Oliver Bearman, joining his teammate Gasly in the next segment.
Racing Bulls got knocked out in Q2 with Liam Lawson out in P12, followed by Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon. Arvid Lindblad could only get P15 to continue what has been a messy weekend so far for the Racing Bull driver, off the back of an FP2 crash which team principal Alan Permane commenting it was a “rookie enthusiasm”.
Russell also led the way in Q1 after Antonelli elimational, dropping Verstappen at the end of the segment with one minute, 43.615 seconds lap. In the background, Williams comfortably made it through with both of its upgraded cars.
On a high-speed track exposing its power unit deficit, Audi paid the price of progress made by Williams as Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg were both eliminated in P17 and P18. The four cars from Cadillac and Aston Martin were also knocked out, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll already facing a back-of-the-grid penalty for Honda power unit changes.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:42.526
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:43.363
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:43.364
4 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford 1:43.500
5 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:43.672
6 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:43.858
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:44.047
8 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:44.081
9 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:44.566
10 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:44.963
11 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:44.775
12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford 1:44.860
13 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:45.001
14 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:45.016
15 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:45.106
16 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes No time
17 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:45.799
18 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:45.920
19 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:46.593
20 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:46.658
21 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:47.337
22 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:48.290
George Russell clinched his fifth pole position of the 2026 season in a remarkably competitive Qualifying hour for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with the Briton finding himself as the lone Mercedes driver after Kimi Antonelli crashed out of Q1.
It looked like four teams would be in contention for the top spot, but Russell improved with every lap in Q3 to establish a dramatic advantage of eight tenths over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, ending the session with a time of 1m 42.526s.
Oscar Piastri was just 0.001s off the Monegasque in third place, leading Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and the second McLaren of Lando Norris, who suffered a lock-up on his final lap that prevented him from finding more time.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton settled for P6 ahead of Pierre Gasly, Max Verstappen and Williams’ Carlos Sainz, maximising the team’s extensive upgrade package. Franco Colapinto rounded out the top 10 for Alpine after struggling to set a representative lap.
Haas’ Ollie Bearman narrowly missed out on a spot in Q3 and wound up P11 ahead of Liam Lawson and Alex Albon, who was not best pleased after his Williams team mate failed to support him with a tow.
Esteban Ocon took 14th place in front of Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad, whose session was affected by mistakes, as Antonelli’s session-ending contact with the wall at Turn 1 left him far behind his frontrunning rivals in P16.
Despite bringing major upgrades to the Baku City Circuit, both Audi drivers exited in Q1, led by Gabriel Bortoleto in P17 while Nico Hulkenberg finished just behind in P18.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was next after enduring a big lock-up that forced him to escape onto a run-off area, but a hefty grid penalty for new power unit components will relegate him and his team mate Lance Stroll to the back row.
That will promote the Cadillac pair of Sergio Perez – a former race winner here – and Valtteri Bottas to P19 and P20 respectively on tomorrow’s grid, with Aston Martin bringing up the rear.
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George Russell was ecstatic to complete what he believed was “the perfect lap” in Qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which earned the Mercedes driver pole position by a commanding 0.837s over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Based on the timesheets alone, it looked like a straightforward session for Russell as he topped every segment, but he faced consistently tight competition from the Scuderia, Red Bull and McLaren.
With his team mate Kimi Antonelli out of Qualifying following a damaging error in Q1, the fight for pole was wide open heading into Q3. But despite his rivals’ best efforts, the Briton improved with every lap to wind up with an unbeatable time of 1m 42.526s, setting up his fifth P1 start of the season.
“It’s been a while, so it definitely feels good,” he said. “It’s probably the biggest margin of my whole career, even including F2, F3 days, so the lap felt really sweet.
“The car’s been feeling great this weekend, and on a track like this, when you can hook it up like that, it feels really amazing.
“I was feeling good, to be honest. I think Max [Verstappen] has been very fast this weekend. I don’t know what happened to him at the end. I think with the yellow flag for Lando [Norris], he didn’t have that last chance, so it would have been interesting to see.
“But it was just the perfect lap at the end. I was in a good gap behind [Isack] Hadjar, which gave me a nice little slipstream, probably by another tenth or two down this back straight. So yeah, it was great.”
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Kimi Antonelli was left to rue a “very unnecessary” and “very stupid” incident that ended his Qualifying session early in Azerbaijan, and leaves him towards the back of the grid for Saturday’s Grand Prix.
Antonelli had just started a Q1 lap at the Baku City Circuit when he thumped the inside concrete wall at Turn 1, causing damage to the front-left corner of his Mercedes and forcing him to stop out on track – as instructed by Race Engineer Peter Bonnington.
While Antonelli officially progressed to Q2 with the lap time he had posted in the opening minutes of the session, the Italian had to watch the rest of Qualifying from the sidelines and ultimately classified down in 16th position.
Speaking after the session, Antonelli sighed: “A very unnecessary mistake. Obviously I misjudged with the grip being so different compared to the first lap. I hit the wall, a very unnecessary mistake so early on.
“It’s a good way to come back to Earth and to remind myself that I need to be on top of it every time, because otherwise I do these mistakes, and a very stupid one.”
Antonelli leads fellow Mercedes driver George Russell by 81 points ahead of the 51-lap race, but his team mate – who charged to pole position by almost a second over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri – now has a golden opportunity to make up some ground.
Asked about his chances of a recovery, and emulating his P19-P1 charge on home soil at Monza a couple of rounds ago, Antonelli said: “I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully we can recover many places.
“The car is quick, so we’re ready to do our best. Hopefully tomorrow is going to be a good race.”
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Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was left with mixed feelings after Qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, admitting that while a front-row grid slot is encouraging, the gap to pole position was “a lot more than we expected”.
Leclerc produced a time of 1m 43.363s on his final Q3 run at the Baku City Circuit, edging out McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by a thousandth of a second and earning P2 on the grid behind polesitter George Russell.
However, Russell’s benchmark lap was a whopping 0.837s quicker, as the Mercedes man built on encouraging practice form to claim P1 and capitalise on team mate Kimi Antonelli’s early Qualifying exit.
Giving his thoughts after Qualifying, and the tow he appeared to receive from team mate Lewis Hamilton, Leclerc said: “I mean, honestly, it was quite a good lap.
“Lewis was in front at three, four seconds, I think, and I managed to do a good lap at the end, but when I see the gap to George, maybe the lap wasn’t good enough!
“Overall, we’ve been on the back foot all weekend. We kind of expected to be very far off after a difficult Friday, but this morning [in final practice] I had a little bit more hope.
“I think in terms of [grid] position, that’s where we expected to be, but in terms of [the time] gap, it’s a lot more than what we expected.”
Asked about the challenge of trying to overhaul Russell on race day, Leclerc added: “We’ll see tomorrow. Our straight-line speed is not our strength, but the pace has been quite strong in FP1 for the high fuel, so I hope it will be the case tomorrow.”
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Max Verstappen was visibly frustrated with Red Bull’s performance during Qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, branding it “not good enough” as he was left to settle for eighth.
Verstappen had looked strong during Friday’s final practice session on the streets of Baku after topping the times, beating the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, with plenty expected from him in the Qualifying hour.
With Antonelli eliminated after crashing during Q1, it looked like Verstappen would be in a straight shootout with Russell for pole, but the four-time World Champion’s Q3 session unravelled, leaving him 1.5 seconds adrift and down the order.
“The whole Qualifying was not how it should be,” said Verstappen. “Already from Q1, my engine is already half a second down on the straight compared to my team mate and they can’t understand why, so you’re just on the back foot.
“Then in Q3, on my middle lap, which is normally a good lap, exiting the final corner Turn 16, my battery just didn’t charge to 100%, so I had to abort the lap, which means you lose tyre temperature and around here that’s killing.
“[I] tried to put as much temperature in it, tried to push on the final lap but of course being down on top speed and I had a yellow flag from Lando [Norris off] in front of me meant that’s where we are. It’s not good enough.
“The whole weekend we are running really well, the car was feeling well and then we run into so much trouble in Qualifying. It’s not good enough.”
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