Charles Leclerc took pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen qualifying sixth and Lando Norris ending up in 17th place on Saturday. This qualifying session could significantly affect the Formula 1 title race.
Leclerc, who won the previous race in Italy, was the fastest, beating McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by .321 seconds, and the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jr. came in third. This pole position was a notable comeback for Leclerc, who had crashed in the first practice session on Friday.
“It hasn’t been an easy weekend because of the crash in FP1, but I didn’t lose confidence. I knew the pace was there,” Leclerc said. “But you’ve got to build back up to speed.”
Leclerc has now secured pole in Baku for the fourth consecutive year, though he has yet to win the race.
Norris looked like he might advance from the first part of qualifying but had to slow down for a yellow flag caused by Esteban Ocon’s slow-moving Alpine. Norris’ lap time from his first run missed the cutoff for the top 15 by .137 seconds.
“There was nothing I could do about the yellow flag,” Norris said. “Frustrating, but now we look ahead to tomorrow and see where we can maximize the result.”
Norris is currently second in the standings, 62 points behind Verstappen with eight races left.
Before the race weekend, McLaren confirmed that they would support Norris over Piastri to help his title bid, with Norris suggesting that Piastri might be asked to let him pass in certain situations.
With a 15-place gap between them in qualifying, it’s unlikely that Piastri will be asked to assist Norris on Sunday. Piastri will be aiming for his second career win.
“Our race pace is good, but the Ferrari is certainly not slow,” Piastri said.
Defending champion Verstappen, who hasn’t won any of the last six races, seemed to perform better in Baku but still qualified sixth. He mentioned that he had hit a curb at “the worst time it could have happened.”
Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez qualified fourth, beating Verstappen in qualifying for the first time this year.
Verstappen said the Red Bull car was improved from the Italian Grand Prix, where he finished sixth, but he wondered if the team’s efforts to adjust the setup before qualifying had made things worse.
“On a street circuit you need to be comfortable and confident to attack corners, and it is harder to do this when the car is a bit more unpredictable,” he said.
George Russell qualified fifth for Mercedes, ahead of Verstappen, while Lewis Hamilton was seventh and Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin.
A strange incident occurred in the final part of qualifying when Williams’ Alex Albon had to stop on his way out of the pits to remove a large piece of cooling equipment that had been left in his air intake. Albon qualified 10th and is now facing an investigation from the stewards.
Albon’s teammate Franco Colapinto, in only his second F1 race weekend, qualified ninth, which is the best result for an Argentine driver in 42 years.
British teenager Oliver Bearman, filling in at Haas for the suspended Kevin Magnussen, was 11th after recovering from a crash during the third practice session on Saturday morning.
