Before the start of the Qualifying in Baku, Charles Leclerc received a warning for failing to slow down under yellow flags in FP3. On the other hand, his teammate Carlos Sainz got dangerously impended by Sergio Perez in the third practice and the Red Bull driver also got only a warning for that.

Q1

The first part of Saturday’s Qualifying brought out a surprising Q1 exit for Lando Norris. The championship contender, who is now 62 points behind the championship leader Max Verstappen, came to Baku with the hope of cutting the gap between them but instead will start P17 in tomorrow’s race.

The British driver had to slow down during his last flying lap because of yellow flags caused by Esteban Ocon. The Alpine driver hit the wall and got a puncture, ending his session and Norris’ at the same time.

Drivers who didn’t make Q2 were Ocon, Zhou, Bottas, Norris and Ricciardo.

Q2

Pierre Gasly amazingly made it to Q3, squeezing his Alpine into fourth place in Q2. However, the French driver wasn’t able to find the pace to get into Q3 and will start P13 in tomorrow’s race. Still a good result for the team from Enstone, which was struggling in all three practices.

A big surprise of the session was the pace of Williams, although the British stable showed signs of competitiveness on Friday and Saturday morning. Both of their drivers managed to make it to Q3, which hasn’t happened since 2023.

Drivers who didn’t make Q3 were Stroll, Hulkenberg, Gasly, Tsunoda and Bearman.

Q3

Charles Leclerc claimed his fourth consecutive pole position in Baku, outpacing McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and his Ferrari teammate, Carlos Sainz.

Sergio Perez and George Russell posted the fourth and fifth fastest times, respectively, while Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton had to settle for sixth and seventh.

Fernando Alonso, despite his teammate Stroll finishing fifteenth, managed to find some pace in his Aston Martin and will start eight tomorrow, achieving a solid result for the team.

A strange incident occurred during Q3 when Alex Albon’s FW46 left the pit lane with an airbox cooler still attached. Albon managed to remove it himself from the cockpit and discard it at the side of the track. Unfortunately, this delayed him from reaching the timing line for a final push lap and left him in P10. The mishap, classified as an unsafe release, will be investigated after the session, with a possible threat of a fine for Williams.

On the other hand, it was a very good qualifying for his teammate Franco Colapinto, who secured for himself a start from ninth place tomorrow. With this result, he managed to out-qualify Albon, which Logan Sargeant, who the Argentine driver replaced 2 weeks ago, has never been able to do.