Azerbaijan GP Qualifying: Leclerc master of Baku, everyone chases
F1 NewsSaturday, 14 September 2024 at 17:20
Charles Leclerc took pole for the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and by a margin from McLaren's Oscar Piastri while Max Verstappen was only sixth.
Leclerc delivered on the early promise Ferrari showed in Baku and despite his crash in practice on Friday, bounced back brilliantly to take a dominant pole at a venue he historically excelled at.
It was Leclerc's fourth pole in a row at Baku, which just shows how much the Monegasque enjoys driving around its streets and comes after a great result for him and Ferrari with the win he took at Monza two weeks ago.
Carlos Sainz also delivered a strong result for Ferrari and was third fastest behind Piastri who was second an salvaged the day for McLaren after Lando Norris went for an early shower after ending Q1 only 17th fastest.
At least McLaren do not need to worry about team orders this weekend. Norris' mistake meant he will not be in a position to need Piastri to move out of his way.
On a day when he should have capitalized on Norris' misfortune, Verstappen failed to make any impression despite topping Q2 and was only sixth fastest.
The triple Formula 1 champion was outqualified by Sergio Perez who was fourth and also George Russell who was fifth fastest.
It was another subpar showing from Mercedes who flirted with the top early on in the weekend but in the end, they were over half a second off the pace with Russell while Lewis Hamilton was even worse, almost one second off in seventh.
Williams delivered a great qualifying, except for the part when they forgot to remove the airbox fan from Alex Albon's car before sending him out on track for the final run on Q3.
But Franco Colapinto gave them reason to smile, making it into Q3, ninth fastest in the end missing out on eighth by less the two tenths to none other than Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin.
Albon was tenth despite his team's mistake.
Leclerc: Hopefully we can play a team game to win the race
After taking his 26th career F1 pole, Leclerc said: "It's one of my favourite tracks of the season, I really like it.
"It hasn't been an easy weekend because obviously the crash in FP1. But it didn't make me lose the confidence, I knew the pace was there.
"In FP2 we had a problem with a new part on the car and we lost another half an hour and we didn't recover those laps, but the pace was always there," he went on.
"In qualifying, it was all about trying to stay away from the walls and then in that last lap I went for it a bit more and the lap time came very nice. The car felt really good, everything felt great and it's amazing to be on pole."
Leclerc has never won at Baku despite his four poles there, so asked about tomorrow's race, he said: "First and third is where you want to start and hopefully we can play a team game tomorrow to win the race.
"In the past we have struggled in the race, this year we have a stronger race car so I hope that we can finally make it tomorrow.
"We did a really good job in Monza but we have to reset in every race, tomorrow is a race with more issues with more tyre degradation, and we will do our homework tonight to get ready," he concluded.
Second-placed Piastri commented: "I just got a bit closer to the walls on the last lap!" he says. "This track really rewards commitment so the last laps in Q3, I knew I had less to lose.
"I think following around here is going to be really tough, so clean air would be good tomorrow. I think our race pace is good, but the Ferrari is certainly not slow," he added.
As for Sainz he said: "I think we had a solid qualy, a solid day in general and we are both in a good position for tomorrow.
"I've never been 100% hooked up around here, never my best version, so P3 is a good place to be and my race pace in practice seemed strong, so all to play for tomorrow," the Spaniard added.
Q1: Norris out!
Clear conditions reigned over Baku as Qualifying was given the green light, track temperatures at 38 degrees Celsius with air temperature at 27 degrees.
Drivers lined up in the pitlane and soon most of the cars were out on track while Leclerc, Sainz, Norris and Piastri took their time. Soon the Ferraris exited their garage and the McLarens followed.
Mercedes bucked the Soft tyre trend adopted by all the car at the start of Q1 and went out on Mediums with both their cars.
The first round of runs delivered this order: Perez - Sainz - Leclerc - Verstappen - Piastri - Norris - Nico Hulkenberg - Alonso - Colapinto - Albon.
Sainz had to abort his first run after a mistake while Verstappen reported: "The car is jumping around like crazy on the rear axle."
Verstappen soon reports: "I am nowhere."
Colapinto soon improved to go third fastest after a lap a bit over the limit as he brushed the wall, while Sainz brings out brief Yellow flag having shot through the run-off area at Turn 2 and had to reverse back on track.
The second runs were soon underway, Mercedes finally switching to Softs, as the track continued to evolve with the lap times dropping massively.
With time up for Q1, it was Leclerc who was fastest with a 1:42.775, with Albon second, 0.124s behind in second, while Piastri was third fastest. Verstappen was sixth.
But the big shock was Norris who was eliminated from Q1, after a scruffy lap that saw him go hard in the kerbs at Turn 16 in addition to a Yellow flag which meant he had to slow down.
The Briton was 17th fastest behind Daniel Ricciardo who was 0.075s away from making it into Q2.
Valtteri Bottas was 18th fastest ahead of Zhou Guanyu in 19th while Esteban Ocon was 20th.
Q2: Colapinto makes Q3 and ahead of Albon!
Drivers raced out on track for Q2, and Russell had a close moment with Piastri as they fought for position, but no contact.
The first rounds were on and Russell after putting in his banker lap urged his team to send him out early claiming the track is "starting to plateau". The Briton didn't want to take an risk by delaying his second run and suffer what Norris faced.
Verstappen was fastest after the first runs while Leclerc was second fastest after a mistake in the final corner with Perez third Sainz fourth.
Piastri was fifth, with Russell sixth ahead of Oliver Bearman, Albon, Hamilton and Hulkenberg.
With less than three minutes remaining the final runs began and in the end, Verstappen led the way with a 1:42.042, 0.014s ahead of Leclerc in second and Perez in third, 0.221s off the pace.
Colapinto made it superbly into Q3 and ahead of Abon, sixth vs tenth respectively.
Oliver Bearman was the first to lose out on Q3, by 0.128s while Yuki Tsunoda was 12th fastest in the VCARB, and 0.144s ahead of Pierre Gasly, 13th in the Alpine.
Nico Hulkenberg was 14th - outqualified by Bearman - with Lance Stroll 15th.
Q3: Verstappen bombs, Leclerc unchallenged!
Q3 started with another close moment in the pitlane, as Perez had to stop as both Williams cars jumped in his way on their way out of the garage.
Russell was the first driver to start a timed lap followed by Hamilton and then Piastri with Leclerc following in the Ferrari.
Russell went fastest with Hamilton going second fastest, but then Piastri went to the top only for Leclerc to go even faster.
Sainz then took second fastest while Verstappen was only fifth fastest on his first lap and dropped to sixth after Perez claimed fifth.
Replay showed that Verstappen had a scruffy Turn 16 going hard on the kerb.
The order after the first runs was: Leclerc - Sainz - Piastri - Russell - Perez - Verstappen - Hamilton - Albon - Colapinto - Alonso.
The second runs started with an issue as Williams sent Albon out with the airbox fan still attached to his car. He stopped at the exit of the pitlane.
Albon took the fan out himself and handed it over to the marshals and was on his way, but he was under investigation for an unsafe release.
The final runs saw Verstappen fail to improve while Leclerc increased his advantage while Piastri also upped his game but not enough to challenge the flying #16 Ferrari on the day.
As a result, Leclerc took pole with a 1:41.365 and over three tenths clear of Piastri who was second in the McLaren while Sainz was 0.440s off the pace of his teammate in third.
Perez outqualified his teammate into fourth while the latter was only sixth as Russell split the Bulls to line up fifth on the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix.
Hamilton struggled to an eventual seventh and was complaining about the tyre temperature of his W15 and was 0.924s off pole - a massive gap.
Alonso was eighth fastest in the Aston Martin, over one second off the pace and 0.161s ahead of an excellent Colapinto who was ninth fastest and outqualified Albon who was tenth after his airbox fan mess.
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