Leclerc claims fourth Baku pole in a row as Q1 drama leaves Norris 17th · RaceFans

Charles Leclerc will start on pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after beating Oscar Piastri by three tenths of a second in Q3.

However, the top two in the championship both endured difficult qualifying sessions. Max Verstappen out-qualified by Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez for the first time in 33 rounds and will start from sixth on the grid.

Lando Norris will start down in 17th place after he abandoned his final run in Q1 after coming across the slow Alpine of Esteban Ocon in the final sector, leading to his elimination.

Q1

There was a major traffic jam at the end of the pit lane as qualifying began as teams were eager to make the most of the 18-minute of the session. Drivers began queueing to leave over three minutes before the session began.

Almost the entire field headed out on soft tyres, aside from the Mercedes ofLewis Hamilton and George Russell, who opted for a first run on medium tyres. Max Verstappen’s first effort of the day was beaten by his team mate Sergio Perez, who went quickest of all with his opening lap.

Verstappen complained his car was “jumping around like crazy” on his first run as he dropped down to ninth behind all of his major rivals. Carlos Sainz Jnr had to put his Ferrari into reverse after running down the escape road at turn two, while his team mate Charles Leclerc went fastest of all in the other Ferrari, despite reporting that he was unhappy with his lap.

In the closing minutes of the session, both Aston Martins sat in the drop zone with Fernando Alonso in 16th and Lance Stroll 18th. Alonso improved at the chequered flag to go safe in 15th, while Stroll also jumped into 13th.

That meant Norris needed to improve to ensure passage into Q2. However during his final lap Esteban Ocon hit the wall ahead of him and had to limp back to the pits. Norris was forced to back off because of a yellow flag, which meant he could not complete his lap and the driver second in the championship was out in Q1.

Joining Norris in elimination were Daniel Ricciardo in 16th, the two Sauber drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, with Ocon knocked out slowest of all in 20th.

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Q1 result

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Q2

Another rush out of the pit lane at the start of Q2 almost led to George Russell being squeezed by Oscar Piastri and Franco Colapinto.

All drivers, predictably, stuck with soft tyres for the start of the second session, but only the Red Bull pair had fresh softs for their first runs. Naturally, they assumed the top positions on the timing screen, with Verstappen two tenths ahead of Perez and half a second quicker than the sole remaining McLaren of Piastri.

Ferrari’s second run on fresh softs saw Leclerc almost match Verstappen’s best time, while Russell moved to fourth. Hamilton was struggling to get his tyres into the right window for the start of his push laps and was sitting towards the back of the top ten.

When the chequered flag flew, Williams secured a double appearance in Q3 with Colapinto going sixth with his final effort as team mate Alexander Albon squeezed into the top ten. That eliminated Oliver Bearman, who was frustrated to miss out on his first career Q3 appearance by a tenth of a second.

Yuki Tsunoda also failed to make the cut in 12th, along with Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg, out-qualified by his much younger team mate. Stroll was knocked out slowest in 15th, failing to follow team mate Alonso into Q3.

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Q2 result

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Q3

With no Norris in the top ten, Red Bull had what appeared to be a glorious opportunity to pile the pressure on the McLaren driver by taking pole position with Verstappen. But before they could attempt any kind of slipstream between their two cars, Perez had to avoid both Williams in the pit lane as they decided to enter the fast lane right in front of the Red Bull, forcing him to stop.

The first timed laps looked encouraging for Ferrari as Leclerc took provisional pole with a 1’41.610 with team mate Sainz in second, two tenths slower than his team mate and just milliseconds ahead of Piastri in third.

Verstappen had a ragged first flying lap, fighting with oversteer throughout the six kilometres to go sixth, behind his team mate, while Hamilton could only manage seventh with his continued struggles with his tyres.

As the field emerged from the pit lane for their final runs, a bizarre error from Williams saw them release Albon’s car with a cooling device still attached to the car’s air intake. Albon pulled over to the side of the track and attempted to remove the device himself, being able to hand it to a trackside marshal before continuing on his way, meaning the session was not interrupted by a yellow flag.

Leclerc improved his own pole time by two tenths to post a 1’41.365, which Piastri could not match, meaning Leclerc secured pole position by three tenths of a second. Sainz took third place, just eight-thousandths of a second faster than Perez who out-qualified team mate Verstappen for the first time in 33 attempts.

Russell split the Red Bulls in fifth, with Verstappen only sixth after complaining of inconsistent handling from one run to the next. Hamilton was almost a second slower than Leclerc in seventh, with Alonso in eighth. The two Williams drivers completed the top ten, with Colapinto out-qualifying Albon who failed to set a lap at the end of Q3 after his airbox drama.

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Q3 result