Azerbaijani qualification with a clear result. Who will start from pole position on Sunday?

The eighth grand prix of the season has finished qualifying and once again it was quite a drama. The battle for pole position was between a foursome of Red Bull and Ferrari drivers. Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari was the fastest, winning with a time of 1:41.359, finishing almost three tenths ahead of Red Bull’s Pérez in second. Pérez’s teammate Max Verstappen finished third.

Qualifying was postponed by fifteen minutes due to a delayed third practice session. Even with the temperatures dropping, the drivers waited at the pit lane exit to record their fast time as soon as possible. After a quarter of an hour, however, the battle was on.

The low temperatures allowed the drivers to make several attempts at a fast lap on one set of tyres. The opening part of qualifying confirmed the duel between Red Bull, Ferrari and the rest of the world for fifth place.

Both Williams and Haas showed poor performance. Q1 was interrupted by a crash two and a half minutes later by Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin. Valtteri Bottas was the only one who was still able to fight his way through to the next session, dropping his Alfa Romeo to fifteenth place.

Starting Sunday’s race from the last five positions will be Mick Schumacher (20th), Lance Stroll (19th), Nicholas Latifi (18th), Alexander Albon (17th) and Kevin Magnussen (16th). Q1 was dominated by Max Verstappen in the Red Bull with a time of 1:42.722.

The middle block of the battle for pole position produced an even fight for the tenth place. Eleventh-placed Lando Norris in the McLaren lost just twenty-two thousandths to advance, while the others were worse off. From fifteenth to eleventh, Valtteri Bottas, Kuan-yu Zhou, Esteban Ocon, Daniel Ricciardo and the aforementioned Lando Norris would line up. Red Bull was also fastest in Q2, this time driven by Sergio Pérez with a time of 1:41.955.

Q3 offered an interesting battle at the start, with less than two tenths separating the top four. But then a fantastic lap was put together by the aforementioned Leclerc, who deservedly defended his pole position from last year.

Leclerc, Pérez, Verstappen, Sainz, Russell, Gasly, Hamilton, Cunoda, Vettel, Alonso

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