Leclerc bests Verstappen for pole on the streets of Baku, Perez P3
Charles Leclerc’s mastery of the tricky Baku Street Circuit during qualifying continued on Friday when the Ferrari ace bested Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for fast lap honors and the pole position for Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. After a three-week break and on the first of Formula 1’s gimmicky Sprint Race weekends of 2023, this year’s rules have at least been tweaked so that Qualifying is now still really Qualifying for the race grid, with the Sprint Race on Saturday counting for championship points but not grid positions. (Why they need a second mini-race on Saturday with an additional 3-rounds of “shootout” qualifying before it, and on a very treacherous race track to boot, is beyond me, especially if the goal these days is cost reductions… but what do I know.) With the standard qualifying therefore beginning on Friday, teams scrambled to come to grips with the often tight yet frequently high speed Baku circuit with only one practice session under their belts. Leclerc proved to be the fastest learner, returning to one of his best quali tracks and earning his third in a row Azerbaijan pole. Coming into the final stages of Q3 with the exact same time on the pylon, the Monegasque was able to hook up his last lap just that little bit more efficiently than Verstappen, beating the usually peerless Dutchman by nearly two-tenths. It was Leclerc’s first pole of what has so far been a trying season for the fabled Scuderia, and also the first time that Verstappen has not claimed pole after coming out of the gate this year with three on the trot. Despite Leclerc’s excellent quali form here, however, he has never won at Azerbaijan. He and the team will be praying that changes on Sunday.
The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez qualified P3 on a track where he won in 2021. And the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz will line up across Checo in P4, an impressive effort after struggling mightily for grip for most of the day. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton pulled a surprise P5 out of the bag in the end after the Silver Arrows seemed to be seriously down on pace all day long, which resulted in teammate George Russell getting bounced in Q2. Aston Martin continued their strong start, with Fernando Alonso setting the sixth fastest time and Lance Stroll slotting in at P9. And McLaren built on their momentum from their good double-points result last race in Australia, with Lando Norris taking P7 and rookie Oscar Piastri P10. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the Top 10 with a very solid effort good enough for P8 on the grid.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Azerbaijan GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:41.269 | 1:41.037 | 1:40.203 | |
| 2 | 1:41.398 | 1:40.822 | 1:40.391 | |
| 3 | 1:41.756 | 1:41.131 | 1:40.495 | |
| 4 | 1:42.197 | 1:41.369 | 1:41.016 | |
| 5 | 1:42.113 | 1:41.650 | 1:41.177 | |
| 6 | 1:41.720 | 1:41.370 | 1:41.253 | |
| 7 | 1:42.154 | 1:41.485 | 1:41.281 | |
| 8 | 1:42.234 | 1:41.569 | 1:41.581 | |
| 9 | 1:42.524 | 1:41.576 | 1:41.611 | |
| 10 | 1:42.455 | 1:41.636 | 1:41.611 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
The Sprint Shootout quali results are here and the Sprint Race results are here.
Sunday’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 7AM Eastern here in the States. It’s usually an incident-filled and dramatic affair on the streets of Baku, so you wouldn’t want to miss it. Hope to see you then to find out if Leclerc can take it to Verstappen and wrest the win from the Red Bull points leader!