Verstappen Dominates Qualifying in Azerbaijan in an Incident-Filled Session
In a qualifying session full of emotions and with six red flags, Max Verstappen secured pole position, frustrating the aspirations of Carlos Sainz and Williams in the Azerbaijan Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The championship leader, Oscar Piastri, was one of the drivers who suffered an accident and will start ninth in Sunday’s race, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who also hit the wall.
Lando Norris, Piastri’s teammate, missed a great opportunity by brushing the wall on his last lap, losing the chance for pole position and will start seventh.
While several drivers suffered incidents, Verstappen demonstrated once again why he is a world champion, securing the first position with a 0.4-second lead over Sainz.
Sainz, with an outstanding performance, secured a place on the front row of the grid.
Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls qualified in third place, followed by Mercedes teammates Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.
The dramatic session, which lasted 20 minutes longer than the entire Azerbaijan Grand Prix last year, 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 complexity of the Baku track and a light rain at the end of the session. Sainz benefited from being one of the first drivers to go out on the track when the weather changed, setting the fastest time ahead of Lawson and Isack Hadjar.
With many of the favorites mid-circuit setting timed laps, Leclerc’s accident nullified the session.
With the worsening weather, a first Williams pole position since the 2014 Azerbaijan Grand Prix seemed a tempting possibility. “You can start dancing to see if it rains more,” Sainz joked with his team during the red flag delay.
When the session returned to normal, Verstappen seemed to be fast immediately, 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. That meant 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 came 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, hinting at how costly that moment was for him.
Ferrari arrived at the day with high hopes of challenging for pole position, but the 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 season with Ferrari this year. Piastri and Leclerc’s incidents in Q3 caused two of the day’s six red flags. Oliver Bearman caused another when he brushed the wall at Turn 3 and stopped on the track, while Franco Colapinto made sure Q1 ended under red flags when he hit the wall towards the end of his timed lap. Alex Albon’s brush with the wall, Sainz’s teammate, had caused the first of the day. Albon will start 20th, at the opposite end of the grid from his teammate.
