Ferrari’s Leclerc earns fourth consecutive pole with blistering lap in Baku; Perez bests Red Bull stablemate Verstappen, P2 to P3; Sainz qualifies P4
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc earned his fourth pole position on the trot, giving a supreme effort on his last lap in the last session of Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. On the uber charming yet uber technical Baku City Circuit, Leclerc maximized his lap time by minimizing the distance between his blood red Ferrari and the ever encroaching walls, often kissing them with his tires en route to Q3’s fastest lap. The Monegasque continued his fantastic qualifying form and showed wonderful technique and bravery at Baku, besting the two rapid Red Bull’s of Sergio Peres and Max Verstappen, who qualified P2 and P3 respectively. The problem for Leclerc, however, is he has zero wins to show for those previous three poles in Miami, Spain and, most painfully, in his home Grand Prix in Monaco a fortnight ago, where it all went went pair shaped for the Monegasque in the rain and he fell from pole to P4. Trailing as he now does in the championship to Verstappen, you can bet that Leclerc will have the bit between his teeth as he looks to hustle his Prancing Horse around this demanding street circuit and score a win on Sunday to get his title aspirations back on track.
It was also intriguing to see Perez just get the better of his usually peerless teammate over the course of their final flying laps. Coming off his spectacular win at Monaco, a career defining moment for the veteran Mexican, not to mention a brand new contract with Red Bull, Perez is brimming with confidence and now must be reckoned as a near-equal threat for the Drivers’ Championship to Leclerc and his Dutch teammate. The relationship between the rapidly ascending Perez and current world champion Verstappen could begin to get rocky as the gap between their performance shaves down to a whisker, though for the fans and team Red Bull it will be all’s the better if the two can continue to push each other as virtual equals. The second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz was overhauled by the top three after setting the benchmark time earlier in Q3 and so will start alongside Verstappen in the second row in P4. Mercedes’ George Russell once again bested his seven time Champion teammate Lewis Hamilton P5 to P7. Unfortunately for the Silver Arrows, chassis’s extreme porpoising was back with a vengeance on the bumpy, often high speed streets of Baku, which will make for a very punishing 51-laps for both Merc pilots tomorrow.
Rounding out the top ten qualifiers, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly bettered his teammate Yuki Tsunoda P6 to P8. They will be desperate to get a double points finish in this GP after a fairly terrible year for the team so far where they’ve only taken a paltry 17 points from the initial seven contests. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel set the ninth fastest time in Q3 and will line up alongside Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who qualified P10.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Azerbaijan GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:42.865 | 1:42.046 | 1:41.359 | |
| 2 | 1:42.733 | 1:41.955 | 1:41.641 | |
| 3 | 1:42.722 | 1:42.227 | 1:41.706 | |
| 4 | 1:42.957 | 1:42.088 | 1:41.814 | |
| 5 | 1:43.754 | 1:43.281 | 1:42.712 | |
| 6 | 1:43.268 | 1:43.129 | 1:42.845 | |
| 7 | 1:43.939 | 1:43.182 | 1:42.924 | |
| 8 | 1:43.595 | 1:43.376 | 1:43.056 | |
| 9 | 1:43.279 | 1:43.268 | 1:43.091 | |
| 10 | 1:44.083 | 1:43.360 | 1:43.173 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 7AM Eastern here in the States. Can Leclerc turn his supreme run of qualifying form into much needed race wins or will Red Bull’s race pace once again prove superior to Ferrari’s? And who is top dog at Red Bull anyway — Verstappen or the red hot Perez? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!