Charles Leclerc secures pole in Azerbaijan; Norris out in Q1

Charles Leclerc secured his fourth consecutive pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after beating McLaren’s Oscar Piastri to the fastest time in qualifying.

Piastri’s teammate and title hopeful Lando Norris will start the race in 17th after an unfortunately timed yellow flag saw him knocked out of qualifying in Q1.

The lowly starting position delivers a blow to his hopes of reeling in Max Verstappen’s 62-point lead in the drivers’ standings after two consecutive weekends taking eight points out of the Red Bull driver’s advantage.

The disappointing result for Norris comes on the same weekend his McLaren team pledged to give him priority over Piastri in racing situations to aid his championship bid.

Norris might take consolation from Verstappen qualifying sixth, which leaves the championship leader behind his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez, who secured fourth on the grid.

Norris said there was nothing he could do about the yellow flag, caused by Esteban Ocon’s slow-moving Alpine, which meant he had to rely on his earlier time in Q1 that was only good enough for 17th.

“Just everyone did their second laps, and I didn’t,” Norris said. “Just unlucky, that’s all.

“It was Ocon on the left. I had to lift.”

Meanwhile, Leclerc will aim for his second consecutive victory after winning the Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Despite his impressive qualifying record in Baku, Leclerc has never won in Azerbaijan and was deprived of his best opportunity when he suffered an engine failure in 2022.

Asked what it would mean to him to win, he said: “It would be nice! In 2021 and 2023 it was quite unexpected the pole positions. We didn’t have the pace in the car to win.

“In 2022 we had a good car and then the engine blew up, so hopefully the pace is there and we don’t have anything which stops us from winning it.

“But before thinking about the final result there are still a lot of laps around this track and it’s a very difficult track. So we will see tomorrow. In the meantime I will just make sure that I am doing the best preparation possible.”

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz will start from third place ahead of Pérez, with Mercedes’ George Russell slotting in between the Red Bulls in fifth.

Lewis Hamilton will start seventh for Mercedes ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and the two Williams drivers, Franco Colapinto and Alex Albon.

Colapinto outqualified his teammate in just his second race for Williams after he was drafted in at the Italian Grand Prix to replace Logan Sargeant.

However, Albon’s final lap was compromised when he left the garage with a cooling fan still lodged in the car’s airbox, meaning he had to slow at the exit of the pit lane and remove it from above his head.

Oliver Bearman will start 11th on Sunday’s grid as he substitutes for Haas driver Kevin Magnussen this weekend.

Bearman is set to drive for the team full time next year but is standing in for Magnussen in Baku after the Haas regular had his super licence suspended for accruing a 12th penalty point at the Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Bearman also started 11th on his Formula 1 debut in Saudi Arabia when he subbed in for Sainz at Ferrari earlier this year.

Yuki Tsunoda secured 12th place on the grid for RB ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and the second Haas of Nico Hülkenberg. Lance Stroll will start 15th after setting the slowest time in Q2, nearly a full second off the effort of Aston Martin teammate Alonso in the same session.

RB’s Daniel Ricciardo will start 16th ahead of Norris, with the two Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in 18th and 19th. Ocon qualified last after clipping the wall on his fastest Q1 lap, but will start ahead of Zhou due to a power unit grid penalty for the Sauber driver.