Verstappen: You just have to send it

It was Verstappen’s sixth pole of the season and his first on the streets of the Caspian capital. The Dutch ace rose above the chaos, delivering when it mattered most to deny Williams’ Carlos Sainz a shock pole by 0.478s. Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson impressed with third, ahead of Mercedes duo Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.

Qualifying began with drama in Q1 as Alex Albon, Nico Hülkenberg and Franco Colapinto all crashed out. Ollie Bearman then stopped in Q2, while Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri were the big names to hit trouble in Q3.

Each incident halted proceedings, forcing drivers into repeated tyre warm-up cycles and making it almost impossible to string together a clean lap. The normal hour session stretched to almost double that on the day.

Speaking after the session, Verstappen described the unique challenge of surviving Baku qualifying: “Long qualifying with so many red flags, so it was very difficult to get your lap together because most of the time your tyres were not really ready, or a red flag happened."

"Especially Q3, with also a bit of rain around, it was a very difficult session. In the final lap, you just have to send it. I wasn’t even on the best tyres that I wanted, because of all the red flags you basically run out of tyres," explained the four-time F1 world champion.

Verstappen was satisfied with Red Bull’s progress since Monza, where he won last time out: “I’m very happy with how the weekend has gone so far. From FP1, we were not too bad and we just kept on improving a tiny amount, and then we were there in qualifying, which is of course when it matters.

"We definitely were in there for pole regardless of the weather. Of course, Q3 is always a bit messy for everyone. I’m just happy, it seems like since Monza we are doing a better job and I hope that we can continue in that way," he added.

Verstappen’s pole was earned on a weekend where rivals faltered. Leclerc and Piastri, both expected to challenge at the front, will start P9 and P10 after their crashes, while Lewis Hamilton could do no better than 12th after a compromised Q2.

That left the door open for Sainz to take second and Lawson to secure Racing Bulls’ best grid slot of the year in third.

Looking ahead to the race, Verstappen knows the challenge of Baku is far from over: “It’s a long race. You want to have a good start, but even then, we just need to do our own race, look after our tyres because it’s tough on the tyres here with the softer compounds, and then we’ll see what happens.”

Verstappen will line up on the front row with Sainz alongside him, while Lawson and Antonelli form the second row. With slipstreams on the 2.2km main straight, tight castle walls and the potential for safety cars, Sunday promises another unpredictable Azerbaijan Grand Prix but Verstappen starts as the man to beat.