Charles Leclerc held his own to F1 Azerbaijan GP pole from Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
Q1:
The first part in F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying saw off moments already with yellow flags peeping out. Alpine had both cars out on track after recovering and fixing Pierre Gasly’s car in a good time as he thanked them on the radio while leaving the garage.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen led Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in the Top 3 when the session was red-flagged for AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries crashing out at Turn 3 disrupting laps especially of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz with no time on board.
An incident involving lose headrest was noted for Verstappen but wasn’t investigated. De Vries’ nose was stuck to the barrier which is why it took long to clear the car, but before things got going, there was another red flag, this time it was Gasly.
Having had a new ICE, TC, MGU-H and MGU-K, there was further damage to the Frenchman’s car after he clipped the same barrier as de Vries. Amid the red flag, replays showed a spin for Sainz who was still with no time on board.
The green flag this time allowed Sainz to put in one lap as Haas conveyed an issue with Kevin Magnussen’s car and asked him to pit. There was a scare for Alpine’s Esteban Ocon with a brush with the wall, but the team noted of no issue.
At the front, a late quick lap from Leclerc of 1m41.269s put him on top from Verstappen and Alonso, as Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu missed out Q2 by 0.020s after a 1m42.642s lap. Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg (1m42.755s) was 17th from Magnussen (1m43.417s) and Gasly (1m44.853s), with no lap for de Vries and replays showed wall brush for Hamilton.
Q2:
It was smoother start to second part in F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying with Sainz once again leaving it too late after aborting his first quick lap due to lack of grip. McLaren’s Lando Norris, meanwhile, left it to just the one lap after a late release from the pits.
Sainz eventually got a lap in on time but also had an off moment too. It was Verstappen on top with a 1m40.822s lap from Leclerc and Perez in the Top 3 as there was a big casualty in terms of Mercedes’ George Russell (1m41.654s) by 0.004s.
His teammate Hamilton barely made it when both McLaren drivers made it in. Ocon (1m41.798s) was 12th from Albon (1m41.818s), – who reckoned Sainz got in his way – Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas (1m42.259s) and Williams’ Logan Sargeant (1m42.395s).
Q3:
The final run in F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying saw an incredible start where Verstappen and Leclerc set an identical lap time of 1m40.445s but the Dutchman was ahead by virtue of setting the time first. Perez did well to be third without a slipstream.
Sainz slotted in fourth from Hamilton as the Aston Martin pair seemed to be off pace a bit. The second run saw Leclerc do it on his own without slipstream to set a 1m40.203s lap to take his third F1 Azerbaijan GP pole from Verstappen (1m40.391s).
Much like his teammate Perez (1m40.495s) too lost in the middle sector to be third, as Sainz retained fourth from Hamilton. Aston Martin’s Alonso improved to sixth from Norris, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in the Top 10.
#F1 – Provisional Classification of the Qualifying session for the FIA @F1 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix #AzerbaijanGP 🇦🇿 pic.twitter.com/OGedMmL8XQ
— FIA (@fia) April 28, 2023
UPDATE: Much like Ocon electing to start from the pitlane, Haas changed Hulkenberg’s set-up which means the German will also start from the pitlane.
Due to a required setup change, Nico will start today's #AzerbaijanGP from the pit lane.#HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/kc7rSHLzzh
— MoneyGram Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) April 30, 2023