The Monegasque gave his rivals no chance in the decisive part of qualifying, despite the problems he experienced following his accident during the first practice session on Friday.
Qualifying started with the fastest time in the entire field for Sergio Perez, who is the only driver to have won an F1 race on the streets of Baku more than once. The Mexican covered the 6-kilometer track in a time of 1:43.436.
Behind him were the Ferrari drivers, with Max Verstappen in fourth place at this stage of qualifying, more than 0.2 seconds behind.
After improving his first lap, Williams’ Franco Colapinto moved up to a very respectable third position. The Argentine set a time 0.1 seconds slower than the leading Red Bull, taking him a significant step closer to reaching Q2 for the first time in his career.
However, the Baku track is characterised by very rapid evolution, thanks to which almost every driver managed to significantly improve their previously set times during the final phase of Q1.
Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly took advantage of this opportunity, finishing the first part of Saturday’s competition in P2 and P4 respectively.
The second part of the qualifications was started off strongly by the Red Bull drivers. This time it was the world championship leader who drove the fastest lap, completing it in a time of 1:42.042 and coming close to breaking the barrier of 1 minute 42 seconds. His teammate was 0.2 seconds slower than him, and the rest of the drivers were more than half a second behind the leader Verstappen.
This time, it was Oliver Bearman from Haas who puts in a good lap, replacing the suspended Kevin Magnussen this weekend. The Briton was fifth before the final series of runs, more than one second behind the leading Red Bulls.
However, it was not enough to advance to Q3. The Haas rider, after improving his previous result, lost one tenth of a second to Albon in tenth, which turned out to be decisive in the fight with the Thai for advancement to Q3.
This feat was achieved by Colapinto, who was making his debut in Baku. The 21-year-old finished Q2 in sixth place and advanced to Q3 for the first time in his career, ensuring a one-two for Williams in the decisive part of qualifying.
The opening runs in Q3 were dominated by Ferraris, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz managing to get ahead of Oscar Piastri for provisional pole position.
George Russell was in fourth place before the final outings, and only in P5 and P6, with a large gap to the rest, were the Red Bull drivers who had done very well during the earlier parts of qualifying.
In the final moments of the session, the Australian, alone in the McLaren, tried to attack the leading Ferrari drivers, but his pace was only enough to beat Sainz.
It meant Leclerc took his 26th F1 pole position today, with the Monegasque adding a few more tenths to his rivals by setting a lap of 1:41.365 just before the end of qualifying.
Perez will start Sunday’s race from fourth position. The Mexican managed to beat his teammate for the first time this season, who finished Saturday’s race in sixth place, with Russell separating the Red Bull drivers.
Hamilton and Alonso will start in the fourth row, with Williams drivers completing the top ten.
Qualification results
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