F1 Lap Time Watch: 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Charles Leclerc claimed his fourth consecutive pole position at the Baku City Circuit, underlining his credentials as a master of the high-speed street track.
But his performance isn’t the only reason why Ferrari are in such good shape at the track. After all, Oscar Piastri was the only driver from either of Ferrari’s rival teams to beat a Ferrari, though you have to suspect Lando Norris would have done the same in the other McLaren had it not been for his Q1 misfortune.
It’s doubtful either would have beaten Leclerc, however. Even if Piastri had strung his three best sector times together on a single lap he still would have been almost two tenths of a second off the Ferrari.
Leclerc was on it from the word go in Baku, and shrugged off his first practice crash with total assuredness. “The car felt really good since FP1,” he said after taking pole position. “Honestly, we barely changed the car from FP1 to now.”
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Ferrari deserve to be praised for the quality of the job they have done in recapturing their early season form. They were the best part of a second off pole position just two races ago. Their performance this weekend is a further vindication of the work they did to remedy the high-speed bouncing they suffered with the SF-24 and upgrade they introduced at Monza.
However the true potential of the SF-24 in its latest guise may not become clear for a few more races. This is the third time this year Ferrari had the outright fastest car. The previous occasion was in Monaco, another track characterised by low grip and low-speed corners. Singapore, the next venue on the calendar, is more of the same.
One strange detail of this weekend’s race is the cars are on average slower than they were last year. Leclerc was a full second off his 2023 pole position time. No team lapped quicker than they did at this track a year ago.
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The cause of this appears to be the decision not to pressure-wash the track surface, as was done in previous years. As a result the track conditions have improved significantly from session to session. “We had to counter a little bit the track evolution because there’s a lot of track evolution here,” Leclerc acknowledged.
Williams also underlined the improvements they have made with their latest upgrade as both their drivers reached Q3. Indeed, they might well have beaten Aston Martin to fifth-fastest team, equalling their best performance of the season. But a blunder with a cooler on Alexander Albon’s car prevented him from doing a flying lap on new tyres at the end, and Fernando Alonso benefited from a tow on the straight to set the fastest final sector time of qualifying.
Sector times
| P. | # | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate lap (deficit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | 35.702 (2) | 40.813 (1) | 24.825 (10) | 1’41.340 (+0.025) |
| 2 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | 35.782 (4) | 40.972 (2) | 24.803 (6) | 1’41.557 (+0.129) |
| 3 | 11 | Sergio Perez | 35.649 (1) | 41.043 (4) | 24.966 (17) | 1’41.658 (+0.155) |
| 4 | 1 | Max Verstappen | 35.897 (5) | 41.014 (3) | 24.781 (5) | 1’41.692 (+0.331) |
| 5 | 63 | George Russell | 36.045 (7) | 41.052 (5) | 24.602 (2) | 1’41.699 (+0.175) |
| 6 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 35.716 (3) | 41.138 (6) | 24.908 (15) | 1’41.762 (+0.043) |
| 7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | 36.064 (8) | 41.611 (12) | 24.524 (1) | 1’42.199 (+0.170) |
| 8 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | 36.174 (10) | 41.407 (9) | 24.651 (3) | 1’42.232 (+0.057) |
| 9 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | 36.158 (9) | 41.403 (8) | 24.766 (4) | 1’42.327 (+0.146) |
| 10 | 23 | Alexander Albon | 36.338 (13) | 41.353 (7) | 24.831 (11) | 1’42.522 (+0.318) |
| 11 | 50 | Oliver Bearman | 36.032 (6) | 41.689 (14) | 24.978 (19) | 1’42.699 (+0.269) |
| 12 | 4 | Lando Norris | 36.397 (14) | 41.568 (10) | 24.803 (6) | 1’42.768 (+0.841) |
| 13 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | 36.51 (17) | 41.578 (11) | 24.818 (8) | 1’42.906 (+0.129) |
| 14 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | 36.266 (11) | 41.823 (16) | 24.89 (13) | 1’42.979 (+0.109) |
| 15 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | 36.337 (12) | 41.822 (15) | 24.849 (12) | 1’43.008 (+0.093) |
| 16 | 18 | Lance Stroll | 36.487 (16) | 41.892 (17) | 24.899 (14) | 1’43.278 (+0.092) |
| 17 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | 36.854 (19) | 41.617 (13) | 24.961 (16) | 1’43.432 (+0.115) |
| 18 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | 36.474 (15) | 42.32 (19) | 24.824 (9) | 1’43.618 |
| 19 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | 36.851 (18) | 42.428 (20) | 24.967 (18) | 1’44.246 |
| 20 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | 36.916 (20) | 42.214 (18) | 25.174 (20) | 1’44.304 (+0.200) |
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2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
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