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Charles Leclerc takes Azerbaijan GP pole
Leclerc will lead Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez’s Toro Rosso in Sunday’s race following Friday’s one-hour qualifying session, which is divided into three parts, Q1 and Q2 ahead of the top-10 shootout. 5 cars each were eliminated in the third quarter.
This is the first time the latest sprint weekend format will be used, with qualifying for another sprint race tomorrow in Baku.
Azerbaijan GP qualifying results: Leclerc takes pole from Verstappen
What happened in Q1 of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix?
Verstappen set an early pace of 1m41.887s, two tenths faster than Leclerc, but was flagged in red with 10 minutes remaining when Nyck de Vries crashed his AlphaTauri at Turn 3.
Less than three minutes after the restart, Pierre Gasly pulled his Alpine aside at the same corner, also sending him out of the race. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz spun his Ferrari at Turn 1 and continued on.
On the second recovery, Perez briefly took the top spot with a time of 1m 41.756s, before Verstappen regained the title with a time of 1m 41.398s. Just at the end of the race, Leclerc won P1 with a time of 1 meter 41.269 seconds, 0.129 seconds faster than Verstappen.
Falling at the first hurdle were Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo, who spun early at Turn 1), Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen’s Husses (who had a problem with his car and was informed of the pit stop) and handlers Gasly and De Vries.
Azerbaijan GP Q1 results: Leclerc fastest from Verstappen
What happened in Q2 of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix?
Perez set an initial pace of 1m41.131s, 0.062s ahead of Verstappen, with Leclerc third 0.085s behind. Leclerc then took the second lap and beat them by a tenth with a time of 1m 41.037s.
Red Bull pitted and ran again: Verstappen regained P1 in 1 minute 40.822 seconds, 0.215 seconds faster than Leclerc.
Eliminated at this point are George Russell (Mercedes), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Alex Albon (Williams), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) and Logan Sargent (Williams).
Azerbaijan GP Q2 results: Verstappen fastest from Leclerc
What happened in Q3 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix?
In the first round, Verstappen set the benchmark at 1:40.445 and Leclerc set it at a thousandth of a second, but as he was only a few seconds behind, the won second place.
In the final round of the race, Leclerc won pole position with a lap time of 1 meter 40.203 seconds, 0.188 seconds ahead of Verstappen, who could only run 1 meter 40.391 seconds. Perez is almost three-tenths behind and will be ahead of Sainz, Hamilton, Alonso, Lando Norris (McLaren), Yuki Kakuda (AlphaTauri), Lance Stroll (AS Martin) and Oscar Piastri (McLaren), who happened to set the same lap time as Stroll.
Azerbaijan GP Q3 result: Leclerc on pole
What happened at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix FP1?
With the new format running for the first time, teams want to run as many as possible in this single one-hour practice session.
But this was hampered by a sudden hydraulic leak at the Alpine in Gasly, which caught fire and triggered a red flag. Magnussen also started at Turn 1 after losing fuel pressure.
Verstappen leads Leclerc by 0.037 seconds. Perez is third and a tenth behind Sainz, Norris and de Vries.
Mercedes suffers brake problems, 11-year-oldday and 17day with Hamilton and Russell, respectively.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix FP1 results: Verstappen fastest
Maximilian Günther kept his form from rounds 10 to 11 in Jakarta. There, too, the German-Austrian driver secured pole position.
Pierre Gasly repeated Ocon’s performance at the Principality, finishing fourth on a day when others failed to get it right, although he was later held back by Carlos Sainz ) and Max Verstappen were relegated six places.
Ocon, meanwhile, had a less-than-perfect lap in Q3 but was still seventh ahead of Sunday’s grid thanks to a team-mate’s penalty.
“It’s fantastic,” Ocon said when asked by Autosport about the car being fourth fastest again.
“If you had told me two games ago, I wouldn’t have believed it.
“Credit to Viry and Enstone for the work they’ve done, as those upgrades we’ve brought to them are clearly working.
“It’s a moment of confirmation after Monaco, the car is obviously more dynamic, so we’re happy.”
Ocon admitted he didn’t have the best overtake on the final lap, which contributed to his lack of Gasly.
“We optimized very well in all qualifying sessions, except for my performance in Q3,” he explained.
“Probably the tires weren’t as good at the start of the lap as all the other runs we maxed out, and in the rear I didn’t have that good grip.
Esteban Ocon, Alpine F1 Team
Photography: Erik Junius
“It was a bit like Fernando (Alonso), I lost the rear entry to Turn 10, I went a little wide and I lost a lot of lap time there. So there was definitely more possibility today, but it was A great place to start.
“I was really happy today because it was so close and it meant that if we had good lap times we could be there, which is fantastic.
“I hope F1 will stay like this for a long time, and P1 will do likewise.”
Before his penalty was confirmed, Gasly responded to Ocon’s statement about the state of the team.
“I’m very happy for the team because it’s the best qualifying of the season,” he said.
“It’s more important than the result itself. I’m happy with the evolution we’ve shown over the past few weekends.
“It’s early in the season and I’m getting to know the team every weekend. They’re getting to know myself, you know, it’s about putting things together. I really feel like every weekend, we’re taking a step forward. .
“It was a really strong lap. I always look further. When I see Carlos coming in second with less than 10th, it really shows that we are on the gear we have There is potential, and the upgrades are working.
“Overall, there are a lot of positives in this qualifying session.”
Nyck de Vries has performed much better in Monaco than at previous Grands Prix this season. The Dutch seem to have brought this form to the Spanish country. Around Barcelona, the AlphaTauri drivers had a great time. He started the race in 14th place. In a press conference with GPblog and others, De Vries looked to the future.
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