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Charles Leclerc claimed back-to-back poles as he beat Lewis Hamilton. For the second race running, a red flag ends the session prematurely while Leclerc’s rivals were on flying laps.
It was a hotly anticipated qualifying session as Mercedes entered the session on the back foot after all three practice sessions. Red Bull remained the favourites while Ferrari’s impressive pace looked to have continued after claiming pole position two weeks ago at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Throughout practice, it was evident that all drivers were struggling with a bump during braking at turn 15. Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc were just two of a host of drivers who entered the wall throughout the weekend entering qualifying.
Q1
Before qualifying had really started, turn 15 had collected its first culprit as Lance Stroll was left soaring towards the barrier as he locked his front right tyre.
The session was briefly restarted before yet another red flag was waved. This time Antonio Giovinazzi was left shaking his head as he crashed into the barrier at turn 15.
For the second time, the session was restarted with only 10 lap times on the board with nine minutes remaining in the session. Both Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton exited the pit lane as they found themselves at risk of being eliminated early on.
Hamilton quickly improved as he jumped up to first ahead of Verstappen and Sergio Perez as the session came to a close.
As the clock continued to tick, it was the usual suspects of Nikita Mazepin, Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi as well as both Stroll and Giovinazzi who were eliminated from qualifying.
Q2
It was a quiet Q2 session as five cars had already been eliminated from qualifying, which meant that the drivers did not have to duel for position ahead of their laps.
The Red Bull of Perez was the standout performer as he managed to go to the top of the timings on his first lap on the soft compound tyre. Teammate Verstappen and both Mercedes were forced to set yet another lap on their tyres.
As Verstappen came across the line he stole top spot by five-thousandths as he set a 1:41.625 in the second stage of qualifying. The top five were covered by under a tenth as Yuki Tsunoda extracted a great lap time for AlphaTauri to put him ahead of Leclerc.
The shock of Q2 was Daniel Ricciardo who was eliminated from the session when he was caught flying into the wall at turn three. The Australian was too late on the brakes ending any hope of making it through to Q2 as yet another red flag was shown.
The red flag hampered Sebastian Vettel who was improving on his lap time, but instead, the German will start the race from 11th. He beat the Alpine of Esteban Ocon as he also missed out on Q3.
Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen and George Russell were also eliminated from the session as the rest of the drivers prepared themselves for the top 10 shootout.
Q3
As the light went green at the end of the pit lane, everyone was left battling for position as a whole host of cars were slowing down as they were not prepared to punch fresh air down the main straight, giving the car behind a significant straight-line speed advantage.
Just like Q1, it was Leclerc who went out first ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz as the Ferrari duo wanted to set an early banker. Both Mercedes drivers decided to run a different qualifying plan as they exited the pit lane later than the rest while also doing two preparation laps.
Leclerc was flying through the first two sectors but was still not looking likely to take pole position until Hamilton gave the Monegasque a huge tow down the main straight which aided the Ferrari driver as he took provisional pole position with a 1:42.218.
Verstappen was next to cross the line but was unable to match the Ferrari as he slotted into second. Hamilton then took second place away from his title rival when he crossed the line one lap later, but the seven-time world champion was still two-tenths away from pole position.
Pierre Gasly opted for only one run in the final segment of qualifying as he had just one set of fresh soft compound tyres left. It was worth it as the Frenchman went purple in both sector one and two before losing over three tenths to Leclerc in the final sector.
Everyone prepared themselves for their final lap of the session with two minutes remaining on the clock, as they pushed beyond the limit to find all possible time on the table. Tsunoda pushed it one step too far as he collided with the wall of turn three as he outbroke himself.
The incident saw Sainz take evasive action as he took his Ferrari for a spin before the fourth red flag was shown with only a matter of seconds remaining on the clock. The qualifying session equalled the most red flags in a session since Hungary 2016.
With no time on the clock, it was confirmed the session would not be restarted as Leclerc confirmed back-to-back pole positions. History repeated itself two weeks on as Leclerc claimed pole position via a red flag but this time it wasn’t he who was in the wall.
Hamilton will line up next to the Ferrari driver in second with Verstappen directly behind the Monegasque in third. Gasly claimed fourth for AlphaTauri ahead of the second Ferrari of Sainz in fifth. Norris had a quiet day as he qualified sixth ahead of the second Red Bull of Perez in seventh, but the McLaren driver has been awarded a three-place grid drop after a red flag infringement.
Further down the grid, it was Tsunoda who claimed eighth, next to two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top 10 as he endured a poor weekend in the second Mercedes.
What’s next?
Leclerc will be hoping to get off the line well, leading into turn one with the two title contenders behind him. If FP2 is anything to go by then it looks like Hamilton and Verstappen have the edge on race pace but anything can change come race day.
Verstappen will be keen to keep his championship lead intact but it won’t be easy with the two ahead as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix looks to be a thriller.
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