Charles Leclerc also managed to qualify on pole position for the sprint race. The
Ferrari driver was faster than the Red Bulls of
Max Verstappen and
Sergio Perez in SQ3, which required driving on softs.
Alexander Albon cleverly set a seventh time in his
Williams.
Leclerc, looking for a time improvement, caused a yellow flag on his second flying lap in SQ3. All drivers behind him had to get off the gas as a result.
Carlos Sainz could put a faster time out of his mind that way. The Aston Martins came no further than P8 and P9 after DRS problems.
Nyck de Vries finished last after falling victim to a red flag caused by
Logan Sargeant. Points in the sprint race seem particularly far away, so the Dutchman can make good use of this afternoon's session to gather important data for tomorrow's race.
Full results sprint shoot out Baku 2023