Azerbaijan GP: Leclerc storms to pole with epic final Q3 lap

Charles Leclerc produced another special lap to make it two poles in a row at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver found half a second on his initial time in Q3 to secure his sixth P1 in qualifying this season ahead of the two Red Bulls.

Sergio Perez would continue his impressive form by beating Max Verstappen into second as Carlos Sainz, who was quickest after the first run in Q3, dropped to fourth.

Q1

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll would have two trips into the barriers in Q1.

The first he emerged unscathed after locking up and just bumping the TechPro at Turn 7. Moments later, he understeered into the wall exiting Turn 2 causing a red flag.

That triggered a frantic charge for one more lap with two and a half minutes left as drivers raced around to beat the chequered flag.

In the scramble, only Valtteri Bottas made a decisive move just making it through in 15th for Alfa Romeo.

That demoted Kevin Magnussen into the drop zone in 16th. Alex Albon was left furious with Fernando Alonso in 17th.

Williams teammate Nicholas Latifi was 18th ahead of fellow Canadian Stroll and Mick Schumacher bringing up the field.

Q2

Lewis Hamilton had teammate George Russell to thank for a slipstream that towed him into the top 10 late on.

However, the Mercedes driver may be in trouble for driving unnecessarily slowly on his out lap.

In the battle to make the top 10, McLaren’s lack of top speed hurt them as Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo sat 11th and 12th.

Esteban Ocon was 13th with Zhou Guanyu impressively outqualifying teammate and Baku specialist Valtteri Bottas in 14th and 15th respectively.

Q3

The first runs saw Sainz set the benchmark, fractionally ahead of Leclerc who had a moment exiting Turn 12 on his lap.

Red Bull sat one-tenth back with Perez, who touched the wall at Turn 5, marginally ahead of Verstappen.

Charles though would deliver on his second run, blitzing the middle sector and setting a 1m41.359s to secure pole.

A small issue on Checo’s side of the garage prevented Red Bull from executing their slipstream plan on the final run.

Even so, both drivers would improve with Perez jumping Verstappen into second as the world champion settled for third.

A poor first sector ruined Sainz’s final effort as he dropped from provisional pole to fourth.

George Russell hauled his Mercedes up to fifth, albeit 1.3s off Leclerc such was the gulf between the top two teams and the rest.

Pierre Gasly split the Silver Arrows in sixth ahead of Hamilton in seventh. Yuki Tsunoda was eighth as old foes Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 10.

Full results from qualifying can be seen below: