Crazy qualifying in Baku: Five crashes, Ferrari on pole position

Saturday’s qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is now history, and it was a crazy qualifying session indeed. Indeed, qualifying was stopped three times due to accidents involving Lance Stroll, Antonio Giovinazzi and Daniel Ricciardo.

Qualifying for Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix started at 14:00. However, after just one minute of Q1, qualifying was halted due to Lance Stroll’s accident at Turn 15.

After the first third of qualifying was restarted, we witnessed another crash. Turn 15 once again proved to be a reliable killer, as it was in its wall that Antonio Giovinazzi in the Alfa Romeo ended up.

As a result, Stroll and Giovinazzi did not progress to the next part of qualifying and will start Sunday’s Grand Prix from the very tail of the grid.

Nikita Mazepin in the Haas will start from 18th on the grid behind his teammate Mick Schumacher. The last driver to fail to qualify for the next session was Nicholas Latifi in the Williams, who is in position number 16.

The second third of qualifying produced some very interesting results. At the halfway point of Q2, the top three drivers were separated by just nine thousandths of a second, with the top six within two tenths of a second.

A minute and a half before the end of Q2, Daniel Ricciardo failed to control his McLaren, ending up in the wall at turn three and causing significant damage to the front of the car.

Management subsequently decided not to restart Q2. Fifteenth, therefore, will be the start for George Russell in his Williams on Sunday. Fourteenth place belongs to Kimi Räikkönen.

Ricciardo ended his run in thirteenth place behind Esteban Ocon in the Alpine. A very unfortunate qualifying result for Sebastian Vettel.

Affected by the collision and the reappearance of red flags, the four-time world champion was unable to complete his fast lap and will start Sunday’s race from eleventh place. He lost just 29 thousandths of a second to tenth place in Q3, which at that moment was guarded by Fernando Alonso.

The final part of the qualifying session with the top ten drivers was therefore awaited. We already know that the Baku circuit is a technically demanding track, but none of us expected to see five crashes on Saturday.

At the very end of Q3, Yuki Tsunoda crashed his Alpha Tauri and became the third driver to crash in turn 15 during qualifying. The talented Japanese driver was subsequently joined by Spaniard Carlos Sainz, who failed to control his Ferrari before turn 15 and smashed the front wing of the red monopost.

Even Q3 could not be completed. Tenth place at the start therefore goes to Valtteri Bottas. Alonso will start ninth, Tsunoda eighth and Sergio Pérez in the Red Bull seventh.

Sixth is Lando Norris. The British driver, however, still has to face the carpet in front of the sports commissioners, according to whom the McLaren driver was guilty of messing up and not going to the pits to his mechanics after the red flags were displayed.

In any case, it cannot be assumed that Norris will be penalised for this act.

Fifth place at the start goes to Sainz. Pierre Gasly, fourth, had a great result, even attacking pole position with his Alpha Tauri.

A very upset Max Verstappen was third after the final part of qualifying. In the interview afterwards, the talented Dutchman didn’t mince his words and called the whole event on Saturday a sh*t show.

Lewis Hamilton managed to salvage the race weekend by setting a great time that put him in second position at the start. The British driver also mentioned Mercedes’ problems in the interview and was very happy that they managed to place so high after a tragic race weekend.

Taking pole position for the second consecutive race was Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. However, the Italian team’s race pace is not as good as the qualifying pace, so we can expect a lot of pressure from Hamilton and Verstappen.

It’s a long way to the first corner in Azerbaijan and anything can happen. Sunday’s race starts at the same time as Saturday’s qualifying, at 14:00.

Source: F1 Live