The Saturday in F1 Azerbaijan GP was dry in qualifying where plenty of things ended up happening, with the big drop for Lando Norris in Q1.
The sunny conditions in F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying on Saturday made for a an exciting session. It started off with a big off for McLaren’s Norris, who was knocked out in Q1. He along with teammate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen left it late.
While Piastri and Verstappen managed to improve, Norris couldn’t due to yellow flag for Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. He had a moment too in the final sequence which forced him to abort the lap, leaving him only 17th but will start from 16th.
The Brit wasn’t too pleased with the situation especially considering that he is in a tough fight against Verstappen. His teammate ended up in the front row but is wary of the pace of the Ferrari pair, where Charles Leclerc has pole and Carlos Sainz is third.
Both look confident for the grand prix too. For Sainz, it was a surprise considering how he doesn’t do well in Baku. Red Bull has Sergio Perez ahead in the game as he beat Verstappen for the first time in 33 races in F1 qualifying.
Perez felt comfortable but Verstappen didn’t after the changes made. Both hope for a podium, which will be a tough ask. Even at Mercedes, George Russell was good with his lap but conceded that he didn’t have the pace to match Ferrari and McLaren.
His teammate Lewis Hamilton was quite down after another lost Saturday. He didn’t change much but still couldn’t hook it up. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, though, did well to be best of the rest, even though his teammate Lance Stroll ended up quite behind.
Leclerc: “It was a good lap. I just took a little bit more risk compared to the first attempt in Q3. It was important to just have a lap on the board, and then in the second lap, you just take more risk and see what happens. Luckily, I finished both of the laps, and they were good laps. The car felt really good since FP1. Honestly, we barely changed the car from FP1 to now. Straight away, I felt happy and the balance remained really good. We had to counter a little bit the track evolution because there’s a lot of track evolution here, but the feeling was there straight away in FP1, even though there were not many laps in FP1 and FP2. That didn’t stop us to recover after that and to be at ease for all the weekend. I didn’t do a lap with high fuel, but it’s been a pretty strong point of the car this year. So I am not worried going into tomorrow’s race, but obviously we need to do things right.
“So I’ll have to do a bit of homework tonight in order to get ready for tomorrow, but I’m not too worried that we’ll do the best job with our package and then we’ll see whether it’s good enough to win the race tomorrow or not. As for tow, no, no, it was nothing down to Carlos. It was just because I was the first car of the group, so I had nobody in front, but there was no… Yeah, we didn’t plan anything between the cars. I just wish there was maybe another team in front and I didn’t want to be the first car. And on a track like this it makes a bit of a difference and I also saw Max’s lap in Q2 who had a massive tow in the last sector, so I just didn’t want to be losing out to pole in Q3 because of something like that, so I was just making sure that the team knew that it was going to be important for Q3.
Sainz: “I managed to find a couple of things in Q3 that gave me a bit more pace than what I was showing in Q1 and Q2. Probably found it a bit too lat. By the time I found them, I wish I would have had more laps before to get used to driving the car a bit like that. And I felt like I was more competitive. But, you know, it’s always been a track that I struggle a lot at. It’s the best track for Charles and one of the worst ones for me, and I’m glad to be P3 and have a good position going into tomorrow, although it’s something that I keep working on around here because from FP1 I always tend to lack a bit of rhythm and I need to build it up. Regarding two, it was, I think, a matter of… I think we both went in the middle of the session in Q2 while every other team waited until the track evolution. We prioritised putting a lap in the middle of Q2 to be safe going into Q3, and that left us exposed to no tow. And yeah, we were just making sure that for Q3 we were having one. That is when it counts.
Piastri: “Maybe not the messiest ever, but it certainly wasn’t the cleanest. A few big moments in there and a couple of love taps with the wall. So, yeah, I mean, I pushed to get everything out of it that I could. And, yeah, maybe a little bit too much in some places, but I don’t think I had enough to get polled today, so… I’m pretty happy with the front row. And yeah, hopefully we can try and put up a fight tomorrow. I don’t think that much in the end. I think the used tyres I did, I did more or less half a lap on it. So it wasn’t completely used. And around here, the tyres have been a little bit strange, I would say. And just with the track evolution, it’s more about doing a good lap rather than having the perfect set of tyres. So I was pretty happy with P3 after the first set.
“And then I found a little bit more on the second set of tyres. So yeah, I was pretty happy with that. Probably whoever finishes in front tomorrow, I would say! I don’t know. I think it’s very, very even. Through all of practice it looked very tight between us, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull. To be honest, I was a bit surprised Red Bull weren’t a bit further up at the end of Q3, but I think our race pace looked good yesterday, but nowadays the top four teams are so close in race pace that qualifying often makes a massive difference. So I’ve got confidence that our car will be quick. But yeah, I think there’s definitely seven other cars out on the track that are certainly not any slower.”
Norris: “We weren’t really on the back foot. The guy ahead of me crashed and there was a yellow flag, I was feeling good. When you have a 2km straight and you have to lift off at the beginning, there is nothing I can do honestly. Nothing I can change. I don’t know (what can be done in the race). We will try and go forwards and overtake but it is not as simple as saying it. Everything is going to have to be done with strategy because you can’t overtake, there are plenty of cars at the back that take lots of wing off and hope for the best and that makes it impossible a lot of cars to overtake them. But the car is quick. I hope that that can come into our hands and at some point I can get clean air but on a street circuit everything gets backed up so much you kind of get forced into a position and you can’t do a lot at times. We hope for the best but I don’t expect anything magical in that strategy comes into play.”
Verstappen: “I mean it is always impossible to know what will happen in qualifying. As soon as I went out in Q1, I just felt the car took a step back. We made some changes and the car just became incredibly unpredictable and difficult after the changes that we made. Of course, I am a bit disappointed with that as you always try to optimise things and try to make it better, unfortunately, we just tipped it over the edge. It shame that it happened in qualifying. In my first run in Q3, I lost it in the last corner, otherwise you still fight for P2 and P3. Then you still have a run to improve your lap time, but I just didn’t have the feeling in the car. I didn’t feel comfortable because the car was difficult and when you don’t feel comfortable you can’t attack corners, you’re probably a bit under it and that’s basically what happened. I think we actually we did improve the car, but now with the setup we tried to, of course, perfect it, like make a few things better, [it] unfortunately went the other way.”
Hamilton: “Every Saturday, it’s the same, so I’m not really surprised. FP1 and FP2, the car felt amazing and I was really on it, literally from lap one, [we could] compete down the front. Sometimes you wonder when you get to Saturday whether the others were heavier in FP1 and FP2. As I said, it felt great yesterday, then as soon as we started today, I barely changed anything to the car because I didn’t want to mess anything up, and the tyres wouldn’t work. All day they’ve not worked. The last lap, like the last sector, the tyres just started to work, but we missed it.”
Alonso: “It was an exciting Qualifying session for us with a few surprises. The lap here in Baku is very high adrenaline and you take a huge level of risk. We just made it through in Q1 and I was a little pessimistic heading into the next session. The car felt better in Q2 and the lap was very rewarding. In the end I think we have to be quite pleased with eighth position for tomorrow and we’ll start ahead of both Williams cars who look quite fast here. We can’t be overconfident though, because we’ve struggled a bit in general over the course of the weekend. We’ll need to be quite defensive tomorrow and see if we can score some points.”
Even though both the Williams made it inside Q3, there was some disappointment on the side of Alexander Albon, who had a freak incident. The rush to get a tow spoiled his afternoon with the fan still attached to his airbox when leaving the garage.
He would have beaten teammate Franco Colapinto and possibly Alonso too, but had to content with 10th. The Argentine, though, was mighty pleased after finishing inside the Top 10 and with a chance to score his first F1 points in his second outing itself.
Likewise fellow rookie Haas’ Oliver Bearman, on one side, was elated but also disappointed after missing on Q3. He managed to out-qualify Nico Hulkenberg in the process, but rued his FP3 off which probably cost him the chance to fine tune his soft tyre running.
Another to face difficulties was Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, whose lack of running hurt him in his final lap to end up hitting the wall. His hit eventually ruined Norris’ lap too. His teammate Pierre Gasly made it in Q2, but eventually got disqualified for fuel flow.
Even though Visa Cash App RB’s Yuki Tsunoda made it in Q2, he wasn’t as happy, like teammate Daniel Ricciardo who was knocked out in Q1. Kick Sauber tried the tow game but Valtteri Bottas was still down the order along with Zhou Guanyu.
Albon: “It was a bit of a rush to get the tow, a bit like Monza. I actually think this track’s even better with the tow than Monza, because it’s a low-speed exit and you don’t lose as much in the dirty area. We were targeting close gaps, keen on the garage pull away to get going, and obviously we left a fan on the car. Frustrating. Better to happen in Q3 than in Q1 and Q2. There’s a regulation that marshals can’t touch the car. I’m not sure about throwing a fan out of the car – what’s the regulation around that? I think on paper it’s OK – a tear-off is legal, why not a fan? I’m hoping I can keep P10 tomorrow – I imagine I’ll get called to the stewards. I think it’s best left for them.
“At that point, I’m not angry. I just want to see if we can get going again. That’s the only thing on my mind. We had a chat around it. We spoke around throwing the fan, making sure the marshal didn’t touch me or the tan of the car and then try to get going again. I missed the flag by three seconds, so we almost got it. Obviously it was a bit of a mistake, we’ll have a look and review it. But it happens, I’m not kicking the team. I feel like sometimes these things can happen and we’ve just got to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Colapinto: “I’m looking forward to tomorrow…it’s a short straight until T1, but I am very excited. It’s an amazing moment, my first Q3, and I am very happy about it, to be honest. It’s the moment every driver dreams of. I achieved it in my second weekend in F1, so I can’t be any more happy. It was a very good session. I think we put the laps in. Every time I had to go out, we did a very good job as a team. Of course, I would have been a little bit happy to finish in front of Aston, maybe, but we did a little step on the set-up to see what we can do if we could gain a little bit more for the last run on the new tyres but it didn’t really work out, the tyres, the rear stayed alive for the whole lap but I think the team did an amazing job to put the two cars in Q3. It’s a very important moment for Williams, it’s for me a dream come true. After yesterday was going to be tough, but we did a very good comeback, so we’re happy.”
Bearman: “It definitely put me on the back foot. I think not in confidence, but for example the mistake I made in qualifying, I’m sure I would have already done this mistake in FP3 and figured out how to not do that, so we just lost a lot of mileage. First of all, I didn’t account for the track differences, because I basically started from where I left off in FP2, there are no cars running before us basically, but the track took a step backwards and was very slippery. I braked a bit later than I did in FP2 and just went a bit deep. It wasn’t a big issue, but when I tried to get out of it, it was so slippery off the line that I didn’t manage in time. I decided very quickly but it was too late.
“I should have been in Q3. I’m tough on myself because I know that the car could have done more. If I felt like the car was fast enough for P11, then I would be really happy right now, but the car was definitely quick enough to be in Q3, so that’s why I’m disappointed. I gave the guys a huge job [to repair the car after FP2]. They finished the car like five minutes before we went out, so a huge shout-out to them because they worked tirelessly. I’m a bit disappointed just because I feel like I could have been in Q3 if I had gotten those extra two soft-tyre runs in FP3. At this stage of my career those are super valuable.”
Ricciardo: “Qualifying was close today. I went in a bit deep at turn four which compromised my exit, so there was some time left on the table there. Otherwise, the lap didn’t feel too bad, and I was surprised we were out in Q1. It was very tight over one lap between everyone, which is unusual for such a long lap at a street circuit. Any Q1 exit is frustrating, but it’s such small margins around here. However, it’s possible to overtake at this circuit. Even seeing the F2 race today, there were opportunities, so that brings us optimism. We’ll try to pick it up for tomorrow, it’s a race where you can make something happen.”
Bottas: “It’s been another rather difficult qualifying session. We tried everything we could, even with teamwork: I got a nice tow from Zhou, which shows that he’s a real team player, but unfortunately it still wasn’t enough to get into Q2. We weren’t that far off from making the cut, although the lap itself wasn’t quite perfect because of Turn Five. Apart from that, however, it was a clean one, and I think we also got it right with timing and strategy. Ultimately, we just weren’t fast enough to make it to Q2 today. As always, though, tomorrow is a new day, and anything can happen in Baku.”
Ocon: “Missing two sessions on a street circuit, it is a weekend where you can’t really build confidence, you can’t really stop the car and we missed that. I was on for a better lap obviously, I was three tenths down in few corners, it was going to be okay but it was the first time I started to push to the limit with front braking and stuff like that. I clipped the wall a little bit, not the first time I clipped the wall there but the luck doesn’t seem to be on our side because the tyre came off as well.”
Here’s Pierre Gasly’s disqualification note
Here’s how F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying panned out
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