F1: Leclerc again beats Red Bulls to win pole for Baku Sprint Race
–by Mark Cipolloni–
Despite hitting the wall on his in-lap, it was another pole for the Ferrari man Charles Leclerc for today’s 17-lap Baku GP Sprint race.
A tiny wobble on the way in, he locked up and slid straight on into the barriers, breaking his front wing.
Leclerc claimed pole with his opening lap of the final eight-minute SQ3 session thanks to a lap of 1:41.697. The Red Bull drivers attempted to beat that on their final runs, but with the best of the soft tires mandated for the segment already gone, there was no way to overhaul the Ferrari driver. Leclerc’s attempt to improve ended in an error, with the Ferrari driver going straight into the barriers at Turn 5, though he only did minimal damage.
In SQ3, it was Leclerc who set the pace in the first runs, with the Ferrari driver posting a lap of 1:41.697, as Pérez took P2 with a lap of 1:41.876. Verstappen might have beat both, but the champion lost the back end in Turn 6, reported “that he lost all the rear in the middle sector” and had to settle for third.
“Sorry for Carlos,” Leclerc said, as he realized he wrecked his teammate’s lap.
“With the soft it was tricky, the conditions are very different. The rear overheated, and I lost it in Turn 5.
“In the end it doesn’t have any consequence [for me] but I don’t know about Carlos behind, if he was improving.
“We will go for it, we improved the car quite a bit but today we will have more of an answer in the race if we can take the fight to [Red Bull].”
Leclerc shares the front row with the Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
Max Verstappen and George Russell are on the second row.
Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lewis Hamilton are next up, ahead of Alex Albon who was a brilliant seventh.
Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Lando Norris round out the top 10. Both Aston Martin’s again had DRS issues.
The cars are in parc ferme now, so Aston can’t revert to a different spec, even if they have one. They will need to get to the root cause of the issue, though, as no DRS here with such a long straight will cost them in the Sprint and the race.
There has been a red flag in every session so far this weekend, so don’t expect 20 cars to make it to the checkered flag in one piece in the Sprint Race.
Leclerc starts on pole – but will Ferrari have the race pace to stay out in front?
Sprint Race Qualifying Results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | LAPS |
| 1 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:42.820 | 1:42.500 | 1:41.697 | 14 |
| 2 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 1:43.858 | 1:42.925 | 1:41.844 | 15 |
| 3 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 1:43.288 | 1:42.417 | 1:41.987 | 13 |
| 4 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:43.763 | 1:43.112 | 1:42.252 | 18 |
| 5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:43.622 | 1:42.909 | 1:42.287 | 15 |
| 6 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:43.561 | 1:43.061 | 1:42.502 | 17 |
| 7 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | 1:43.987 | 1:43.376 | 1:42.846 | 17 |
| 8 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 1:43.789 | 1:42.976 | 1:43.010 | 16 |
| 9 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 1:43.879 | 1:43.375 | 1:43.064 | 17 |
| 10 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 1:43.938 | 1:43.395 | – | 12 |
| 11 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | 1:44.179 | 1:43.427 | – | 12 |
| 12 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | 1:44.843 | 1:43.806 | – | 12 |
| 13 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | 1:44.433 | 1:44.088 | – | 11 |
| 14 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 1:44.101 | 1:44.332 | – | 11 |
| 15 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | Williams Mercedes | 1:44.042 | – | – | 6 |
| 16 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo Ferrari | 1:45.177 | – | – | 6 |
| 17 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo Ferrari | 1:45.352 | – | – | 6 |
| 18 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Alphatauri Honda RBPT | 1:45.436 | – | – | 6 |
| 19 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | 1:46.951 | – | – | 3 |
| 20 | 21 | Nyck De Vries | Alphatauri Honda RBPT | 1:48.180 | – | – | 6 |