Charles Leclerc took his first pole position of the season today in Azerbaijan as Formula 1 returned after a three week break. Leclerc was followed in the streets of Baku by Championship leader Max Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Perez.
Leclerc and Scuderia Ferrari will be hoping for a change in fortune this weekend, with the team yet to score a win or a podium and already over forty points behind Oracle Red Bull Racing at the top of the order.
Q1 – Double Haas Exit, Trouble for de Vries and Gasly
The last row of the starting grid for Sunday’s race will consist of Pierre Gasly and Nyck de Vries, as the drivers from BWT Alpine F1 Team and Scuderia AlphaTauri respectively crashed individually at Turn 3 during the opening phase of the race. These incidents resulted in the red flags being displayed, interrupting the action.
Zhou Guanyu came very close to making it to Q2, missing out by just 0.020s despite recovering from a spin and narrowly avoiding a collision with the barriers, although he looked like he was carrying decent pace, he will start in 16th in Sunday’s main event. Both Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen from Haas F1 Team were knocked out in the first round of qualifying. Magnussen had to deal with technical problems throughout Q1, which affected his performance, and saw him knocked out.
Leclerc topped the first session ahead of Verstappen, continuing his impressive form from the first and only free practice around the streets of Baku.
Q2 – Shock Exit for Russell, Piastri Through
Valtteri Bottas will start in 14th place, while Logan Sargeant managed to secure his first Q2 appearance in his promising Formula 1 career, finishing in 15th place. This was a much-needed redemption for Sargeant, who had experienced dramatic but also somewhat unlucky sessions in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Australia.
Lewis Hamilton managed to qualify for the top 10 shootout, but his teammate George Russell suffered an early elimination and will have to settle for the 11th spot on the grid, which will be a massive disappointment after the German team had thought they had made progress over the break. The Brit was ahead of Esteban Ocon and Williams’ Racing’s Alex Albon. Albon had a strong performance in Q1 and will be deemed unlucky in Q2 having been unable to improve his lap time due to traffic on his final lap.
Q3 – Ferrari Return to the Front
During their first Q3 runs, Verstappen and Leclerc set identical lap times of 1m 40.445s. However, Leclerc was able to improve his time to 1m 40.203s on his final lap, giving him a lead of 0.188s over Verstappen. This secured Leclerc’s third pole position at the venue, adding to his previous poles in 2021 and 2022. Verstappen settled for second, with Perez taking third place for Red Bull. Carlos Sainz Jr. took fourth position, finishing a massive eight tenths behind his Ferrari teammate.
In fifth and sixth place were Hamilton and Fernando Alonso for Mercedes and Aston Martin respectively. Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda took the seventh and eighth spots, both putting in impressive runs in Q3. Lance Stroll, who will be disappointed with his efforts having been on the podium in Baku before, and Oscar Piastri rounded out the top 10 positions.
Leclerc returns to the front of the grid for Sunday’s main event, the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix but Saturday morning will see the first ever Sprint Shootout, which sets the grid for the first Sprint Race of the season. Leclerc will go away happy though and be hoping that he can replicate his performance today in the sprint event tomorrow and most importantly in the main event on Sunday.
Mercedes would have been hoping for more, but will be hoping that both Hamilton and Russell can do better in the Sprint event and most importantly the race on Sunday, while Verstappen will be hoping to get past Leclerc as soon as he can. Whatever happens, there is sure to be drama on both Saturday and Sunday.
