McLaren driver Lando Norris

Charles Leclerc continued his and Ferrari’s momentum by storming to pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri joins him on the front row, while Lando Norris, on the weekend where he gained McLaren’s full backing in the title race, fell in Q1. Alex Albon and Williams are off to see the stewards over a strange airbox cooler incident.

Charles Leclerc clinches pole in Baku

Leclerc faced a nervy build-up to qualifying as the stewards investigated him for potentially failing to slow under yellow flags during the final practice session, but word came through from the stewards that it was a reprimand only as the light went green to get qualifying underway.

Alpine had sorted the dodgy fuel pump on Esteban Ocon’s A524 to get him ready for qualifying, while Oliver Bearman’s Haas VF-24 was back in full working order after his FP3 shunt.

The opening flurry of Q1 laps saw Sergio Perez, the most successful driver at the Baku City Circuit, in P1 on a 1:43.436, while for Max Verstappen, the RB20 “was jumping around like crazy on the rear axle”.

“I’m nowhere!” Verstappen soon added, as he failed to improve on P7 with a fresh attempt.

Perez found another couple of tenths, but Leclerc soon moved the goalposts with a 1:42.775, George Russell slotting into P2 0.36s down. Franco Colapinto was flying for Williams in P6, ahead of the McLarens.

Verstappen was fighting just to make Q2 and had a brief scare as the yellow flags emerged in Sector 2. The track returned to green before Verstappen’s arrival, as both Colapinto and Williams team-mate Alex Albon shot up into the top three. That was until Verstappen went third, ensuring his safe passage to Q2.

It turned out that Norris was in fact the huge Q1 casualty, as the yellow flags were shown while he was in the final sector, disaster on the race weekend where McLaren had confirmed their full support was going behind the Brit for a title charge. A rough run over the Turn 16 kerb did Norris no favours.

Norris was joined in elimination by Ex-McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu and Ocon in the Alpine.

Onto Q2 and Verstappen was making good early use of his new soft tyres, clocking a 1:42.042 to go two-tenths clear of Perez, while Russell wanted to get out there, believing the track evolution process was slowing down and thus the gains would not come as readily.

After getting a time on the board with used softs, Leclerc and Sainz switched to new. Sainz fell comfortably short of the Red Bulls, but Leclerc split them, going P2, just 0.014 down on Verstappen.

Leclerc was not best pleased with Ferrari, having not had Sainz, or anyone, in front of him for the tow.

“When will we have someone in front? We have practiced that all weekend to not be all alone on qualifying.”

Verstappen topped Q2, as Oliver Bearman, Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll dropped out.

With Fernando Alonso and Colapinto outliers in the Q2 top 10, an intriguing battle for pole in Baku was on the cards.

And after the opening runs, it was Leclerc on provisional pole heading a Ferrari one-two. Verstappen got out of shape at Turn 16 and had work to do in P6.

“Come on guys, get those temperatures up,” Hamilton encouraged Mercedes, regarding the tyres, as he sat P7 and nine-tenths behind Leclerc. Albon’s final Q3 run was almost wrecked with the airbox fan cooler still attached to his Williams. He stopped at the end of the pit exit, dumped it, and set about on his way. The stewards noted that incident and confirmed a post-session investigation for unsafe release.

All the while those final pole attempts were coming in as Leclerc secured pole in Baku, Piastri joining him on the front row.

1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:41.365

2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.321

3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.440

4 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +0.448

5 George Russell Mercedes +0.509

6 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.658

7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.924

8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +1.004

9 Franco Colapinto Williams +1.165

10 Alexander Albon Williams +1.494

1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:42.042

2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.014

3 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +0.221

4 George Russell Mercedes +0.287

5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.384

6 Franco Colapinto Williams +0.431

7 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.461

8 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.556

9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.723

10 Alexander Albon Williams +0.798—

11 Oliver Bearman Haas F1 Team +0.926

12 Yuki Tsunoda RB +0.993

13 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1.137

14 Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team +1.149

15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.362

Q1 times

1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:42.775

2 Alexander Albon Williams +0.124

3 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.258

4 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.313

5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.314

6 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.322

7 Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team +0.326

8 Franco Colapinto Williams +0.363

9 George Russell Mercedes +0.364

10 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +0.438

11 Yuki Tsunoda RB +0.562

12 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.582

13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.595

14 Oliver Bearman Haas F1 Team +0.696

15 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.697—

16 Daniel Ricciardo RB +0.772

17 Lando Norris McLaren +0.834

18 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber +0.843

19 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber +1.471

20 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1.729