Charles Leclerc won the Baku Pole
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc achieved his second pole position in a row in Baku's crash qualifying. Like two weeks ago in Monaco, Monegasse will start from first place in the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan on Sunday (2 p.m. / ORF 1, Sky). Second and secret winner of the day was Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton, 0.232 seconds behind. The favorite Red Bull cars had to digest bitter slips after a bizarre end.
World Championship leader Max Verstappen starts third (+0.345) from the second row, for his stable rival Sergio Perez (+0.699) it was only seventh. In between were AlphaTauri man Pierre Gasly (4./+0.347), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Lando Norris (McLaren). The Japanese Yuki Tsunoda in the second alpha got his best career result in eighth place, but ended the time chase with a crash for everyone prematurely.
The fourth and final red flag was played by Leclerc, who positioned himself perfectly behind Hamilton's car early in the final qualifying section and ultimately took ninth pole position of his career with the help of the slipstream. Two weeks ago, Leclerc had also set the fastest lap in his home country of Monaco, but then crashed into the wall and ultimately couldn't start the race. This time, everything is possible for the 23-year-old in the urban canyons of Baku. “It feels good, of course, even if it happened again with a red flag,” said Leclerc.
Verstappen, who will go into the sixth race of the season for the first time in his career as a World Cup leader, was frustrated. “I actually had the feeling that everything would go well, but then this crap happened. It can of course happen, it's just bad luck,” said the Dutchman, who is four points ahead of Hamilton.
The defending champion once again had reason to be happy. “We didn't expect that at all,” said Hamilton. After poor training, there was little to suggest that the Silver Arrows, in particular, would really be able to stand up to Red Bull on Saturday. Team boss Toto Wolff talked about a “Eureka moment” in the third practice session and, given the good starting position of his star for the race, said: “We have every chance if the car stops.” After finishing tenth for Valtteri Bottas, the Viennese could not be completely satisfied.
For the Red Bull racing team, the day at the Caspian Sea ended a little like it had started. Verstappen had already suffered a damper in the final training session when he rushed into the limit after a driving error on Turn 15. A good two hours later the car was ready to race again, but Turn 15 should also cause problems for other drivers.
Already in Q1 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) demolished their cars in the same place and caused interruptions for minutes. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) ended Q2 early with his impact in Turn 3, the third red flag meant that Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) was 11th on the track by 29 thousandths of a second.
Then in Q3 the Tsunodas accident, the RB motorsport consultant Helmut Marko found a “quintessence” on ORF: “Tactics can be forgotten in Baku, you have to go out ahead and see that you can get a fast lap as quickly as possible”. Because first place would have been possible for Verstappen, said Marko. “We were pretty much the only team left with two sets of new tires. We'll be more careful in the first set and attacked in the second.” The planned attack did not take place.
