Verstappen Dominates Baku Chaos: Pole with 6 Red Flags, Piastri Accident

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Max Verstappen thwarted the aspirations of Carlos Sainz and Williams to obtain a surprising pole position in a Formula 1 qualifying session full of emotions, marked by six red flags. The championship leader, Oscar Piastri, was one of the drivers who suffered an accident and will start in ninth position in Sunday’s race, just ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who also hit the wall. Piastri’s teammate, Lando Norris, squandered a golden opportunity by brushing the wall on his last lap, when it seemed that the pole position was within his reach; finally, he will start from seventh position.

While the McLaren drivers, separated by 31 points in the championship standings, will seek to make their way in a race that promises to be full of risks, Verstappen demonstrated once again why he is a four-time world champion, securing his last lap and surpassing Sainz by a margin of 0.4 seconds.

Sainz also improved on his last lap, securing a place on the front row. “Honestly, we nailed qualifying today,” Sainz commented after the session. “Always with the right tire at the right time and achieving very strong laps.” Had he kept the pole, it would have been the first for Williams since the 2014 Austrian Grand Prix. Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls will start from third position, his best position of the season, followed by Mercedes teammates Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. The New Zealander said: “Honestly, I can’t even remember what happened, it was very hectic. I said it would be, but I didn’t expect it to be like that.”

The dramatic session lasted 20 minutes longer than the entire Azerbaijan Grand Prix last year and took place a few hours after the circuit confirmed a new agreement with Formula 1 to host the race until 2030. The exciting finish was due to a combination of the complicated Baku track and a light drizzle at the end. Sainz benefited from being one of the first drivers to take to the track when the weather changed, setting the fastest time ahead of Lawson and Isack Hadjar. With many of the favorites halfway through the circuit setting times, Leclerc’s accident nullified the session. With the worsening weather, the possibility of a first pole position for Williams since the 2014 Azerbaijan Grand Prix seemed tempting. “You can start dancing to see if it rains harder,” Sainz joked with his team during the red flag delay. When the session resumed, Verstappen immediately showed speed, suggesting the rain wasn’t that intense, but he was denied the opportunity to improve when Piastri made an unusual mistake and went off track, impacting the barrier at Turn 4. This brought out another red flag just as Verstappen was approaching the line. With just over three minutes remaining, the remaining runners went out again for a final lap. Norris seemed to be on the limit at the end of the session and on two occasions he was close to brushing the wall. He did so at Turn 15, running along the TechPro barrier. He finished a full second behind Verstappen’s time, suggesting how costly that moment was for him. Verstappen commented that it was a “long qualifying with so many red flags”. “It was very difficult to complete your lap because most of the time your tires were not really ready, or a red flag happened. Especially in Q3, also with some rain, it was a very difficult session. On the last lap, you simply have to take a risk. I didn’t even have the best tires I wanted, because of all the red flags you basically run out of tires. “I’m very happy with how the weekend has gone so far. Since FP1, we weren’t so bad and we kept improving a bit, and then we were there in qualifying, which is when it matters.” Ferrari had arrived at the day with high hopes of challenging for pole position, but their session fell apart spectacularly. Leclerc’s accident occurred after his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, was eliminated in Q2, despite having been the fastest in Friday’s practice and in the Q1 qualifying session. This continued Hamilton’s disappointing performance with Ferrari this year. Piastri and Leclerc’s incidents in Q3 caused two of the six red flags of the day. Oliver Bearman caused another one when he hit the wall at Turn 3 and stopped on the track, while Franco Colapinto ensured that Q1 ended under red flags when he hit the wall towards the end of his timed lap. Alex Albon’s brush, Sainz’s teammate, with the wall had caused the first of the day. Albon will start in 20th position, at the opposite end of the grid to his teammate.