George Russell took a dominant pole, beating Charles Leclerc by over eight tenths in qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver took control after his teammate Kimi Antonelli crashed out, allowing him to take control of qualifying and secure his first pole since Spielberg in June.
Russell described his pole as the perfect lap, and it gives him the opportunity to close the gap to his teammate in the championship. Leclerc put his Ferrari a thousandth faster than Oscar Piastri, but neither appeared to have enough to be able to challenge for pole.
Antonelli was the big casualty of Q1, though he made it into Q2 his qualifying was over when he lost control and hit the wall at Lewis Corner (Turn One), that proved terminal, breaking his front suspension. The first time this season he has effectively been knocked out in Q1 or SQ1.
A rare mistake for the Italian in a season where he has ironed out many of the errors he had made in his rookie season. But he appeared to have misjudged the amount of grip available and caught the inside wall, which immediately damaged the track rod between his left front tyre and the car.
Just three weeks ago, Antonelli remarkably won from nineteenth at the Italian Grand Prix, but Monza is the easiest track on the calendar to overtake at.
This creates the perfect opportunity for Russell, but he will look to draw on his drive from last to victory at Monza as he looks to limit the damage. Piastri had his best qualifying since Budapest at the end of July. Leclerc, a four-time pole sitter and F2 winner in Baku, missed out on pole once again.
On a weekend where Antonelli’s running has been compromised by reliability problems that meant he missed out on half the possible running on Thursday, Russell absolutely delivered on Mercedes’ dominant position on this unique track. Russell has looked comfortable all weekend and never looked in danger of being beaten for pole, his first since the Austrian Grand Prix at the end of June.
Russell said, “It has been a while, so definitely feels good. It’s probably the biggest margin of my whole career, even including F2 and F3 days. The lap felt really sweet. The car has been feeling great this weekend and on a track like this when you can hook it up like that, it feels really amazing.”
“It was just the perfect lap at the end. I was in a good gap behind to Hadjar, which gave me a nice little slipstream probably by another tenth or two down this back straight, so it was great.”
Leclerc after qualifying second, “Honestly, it was quite a good lap. Lewis was three-four seconds, I think, in front, and I managed to do a good lap at the end. But when I see the gap to George, maybe the lap wasn’t good enough.”
“Overall, we’ve been on the back foot all weekend. We kind of expected to be very far off after a difficult Thursday, but this morning I had a little bit more hope. I think in terms of position, that’s where we expected to be, but in terms of gap it’s a lot more than what we expected.”
Piastri added, “It was good. In qualifying, we found a bit of pace. It’s not the first time that has happened to us this year. We seem like we’re a bit on the back foot in practice and come out in qualifying and find that bit extra.”
“I was pretty surprised to see us one-two after that first lap of Q3 but, unfortunately, we had no hope against George. Happy with how the weekend has gone so far. Very happy to be back in the top three.”
Isack Hadjar managed to split the two McLarens on his return after missing the last three weekends; he was a tenth and a half behind the Australian as he went seven hundredths ahead of Lando Norris. The world champion said overnight that McLaren were miles off the pace if they were to challenge for pole; he was right as he was over a second off Russell.
Though there was a slight surprise as they managed to go fastest on the opening attempts in Q3, on his final run Russell found eight tenths on Piastri and a second on Norris, which they were unable to find an answer to. The Englishman locked up on his final attempt at Turn Three, also preventing Verstappen from improving, as he pushed too hard.
Norris put his McLaren nearly two tenths faster than Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time champion compromised by not getting a tow on the final attempt, as was Max Verstappen, who could only manage eighth. Due to the lack of high-speed corners, most teams apart from McLaren unusually ran the same set of tyres for the whole of Q3 to bring them into a better operating window.
Piastri took provisional pole after the first runs before Russell went quicker by half a second, then found even more pace on his last flying lap to set an unbeatable 42.526, which nobody came close to threatening. The Alpine of Pierre Gasly split the former title rivals; he was nearly a tenth behind the Ferrari, three and a half hundredths faster than his former teammate.
Verstappen was nearly half a second ahead of Carlos Sainz, the Williams driver making it into Q3, having maximised the team’s upgrades, which has cut all of their excess weight. Franco Colapinto completed the top ten, but he struggled to set a representative time during the final part of qualifying.
Ollie Bearman missed out on progressing to the final part of qualifying by just under a tenth as he went just over three-quarters of a tenth faster than Liam Lawson. Alex Albon was a frustrating thirteenth, failing to get a tow from Sainz, as the British-Thai driver didn’t make the most of their major upgrade package, which has cut all of their excess weight.
Esteban Ocon was nine hundredths faster than Arvid Lindblad who was slowest in Q2, with Antonelli’s crash meaning he didn’t set a time and will look to come through the field tomorrow.
Both Audi’s were fastest of those knocked out in Q1, Gabriel Bortoleto going nearly a tenth and a quarter faster than teammate Nico Hulkenberg. The Aston Martins and Cadillacs completed the field, Sergio Perez three-quarters of a second faster than former teammate Lance Stroll, and current teammate Valtteri Bottas completing the field
Related
- AZERBAIJAN GP – Max Verstappen under a tenth faster than George Russell in third practice
- AZERBAIJAN GP – George Russell half a second faster than Kimi Antonelli in second practice despite reliability woes
- AZERBAIJAN GP – George Russell four tenths faster than Max Verstappen in first practice
- PRIXVIEW – Azerbaijan Grand Prix
