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Leclerc continues Baku streak: Perez outqualifies Verstappen, Norris P17
Charles Leclerc was the quickest driver in qualifying and will start from pole position at this year's Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The driver' lap time was a 1:41.365. Oscar Piastri finished in P2, while Carlos Sainz rounded off the Top 3 in Baku.
Charles Leclerc was in the lead after the first runs have been completed in Q3, and the Monegasque driver could claim pole position after he further improved in Baku. While Lando Norris got eliminated in Q1, Oscar Piastri finished in P2 ahead of Carlos Sainz. Sergio Perez managed to outqualify Max Verstappen in a track favoured by the Mexican, as he finished in P4, while the Dutchman will only start from P6 on the grid.
George Russell also managed to qualify his teammate, the Briton will start from fifth place, while Hamilton finished qualifying in P7. Fernando Alonso managed to defeat the two Williams to take P8 on the grid.
A strange thing also happened to Alex Albon, as Williams forgot to take of a cooling fan before the Thai driver's second run. He eventually finished in P10, behind his teammate, Franco Colapinto. The Argentinian rookie competed in his first even Q3 this afternoon in Baku.
Q2
In a session where they were close to no mistakes on track, Verstappen was the quickest just ahead of Leclerc. Together with the remaining drivers of the top four teams, two Williams and Fernando Alonso made it through. As a result Colapinto qualified for his first ever Q3. Oliver Bearman on the other hand just missed out on getting though to the final session of the day, but the Briton still outqualified his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg. Together with the two Haas cars, Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll were also eliminated.
OUT - P15 Stroll, P14 Hulkenberg, P13 Gasly, P12 Tsunoda, P11 Bearman
Q1
Surprisingly so, the two Mercedes began the session on medium tyres, however, they both needed the softs to get through to Q2. Verstappen and Piastri well also on the edge of getting knocked out, however they survived this session, unlike Lando Norris who made a mistake on his final lap, and got eliminated early on in Baku. Together with the Briton, Daniel Ricciardo, the two Stake F1 cars and Esteban Ocon finished in the drop zone.
OUT - P20 Ocon, P19 Zhou, P18 Bottas, P17 Norris, P16 Ricciardo