2026 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP
F1 Azerbaijan GP: Follow qualifying in Baku with live timing
Updates from Formula 1 qualifying at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Live Standings
Live Text
And that's your lot from qualifying! Thanks for joining us, and we'll catch you tomorrow for the grand prix!
Oscar Piastri, third: "Yeah it was good, in qualifying we found a bit of pace. It's not the first time it's happened to us this year, we seem to be on the back foot and then come out in qualifying and find that bit extra. I was surprised to see us 1-2 after the first lap of Q3, but we had no hope against George.
"It's never easy here, especially when it's so gusty, but happy to be back in the top three. Trying to keep it between the lines isn't easy, it always sounds dumb talking about wind with an F1 car but when it's a bit more open and you get more of a gust, it's not easy at all."
Charles Leclerc, second: "Honestly it was quite a good lap, Lewis was a few seconds in front and 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 expected to be very far off by the end of the Friday, but we had more hope this morning.
"We'll see tomorrow, our straightline speed is not our strength but the pace has been quite strong in FP1 for the high fuel so hopefully that's the case again tomorrow."
George Russell, pole for the Azerbaijan GP: "Yeah, it's been a while, so it definitely feels good. That's probably the biggest margin of my whole career, even in the F2/F3 days. So the lap felt really sweet, on a track like this when you can hug it up [to the wall] like that, it's amazing.
"I was feeling good. I think Max's been very fast this weekend, I don't know what happened to him, maybe didn't get that last chance. But it was the perfect lap at the end, got a little slipstream from Hadjar which got me another tenth or two. "
"Just over 0.8s to Leclerc," Russell is told. "Woah!" is the response.
Russell, Leclerc, Piastri, and Hadjar make up the top four, all outqualifying their team-mates.
Antonelli, meanwhile, has quite a bit of work to do...
Hamilton moves up to sixth, with Leclerc moving into second - but 0.837s behind Russell. Piastri then goes third, behind Leclerc by just 0.001s.
Verstappen can't get any higher than eighth as he seemed to encounter the yellow flag, while Norris stays fifth despite going deep at Turn 3.
Pole is Russell's, by 0.837s.
Hadjar puts together a good first sector, but Russell's just absolutely on it at this stage and is finding even more time.
Norris has stopped at Turn 3, which means he's not going to improve.
Hadjar goes up to third, while Russell finds a 1m42.526s! 0.9s up on everyone else as it stands! What do the rest have?
Hadjar posts a 1m43.703s to go third, but Russell vaults to the top with a 1m43.037s to find over half a second over the McLarens. Big lap.
Colapinto has an off at Turn 15, while Leclerc moves up to second. Gasly gets up to sixth, ahead of Hamilton.
Hadjar's starting his lap now, and we'll have the Ferraris and Alpines follow suit in due course.
The Frenchman was up in the first sector, but Russell's finding time too.
Russell kicks us off with a 1m43.713s. There's the benchmark, but Norris is going well.
Verstappen posts a 1m44.487s, as Norris does a 1m43.672s to go top...but Piastri then finds a 1m43.571s!
So Russell, Verstappen, Piastri, Norris, Sainz, and Hadjar have gone out, while the Ferraris and Alpines have stayed behind for now.
"Out, warm-up, push, and then quick turnaround?" Norris asks. Will Joseph, is engineer, says "Yes. Or maybe that's what we want people to believe..."
Incredible 4D chess here from McLaren. I don't know what to think...
Q3 begins!
Final call for pole: who's got this?
Eliminated in Q2
11. Bearman
12. Lawson
13. Albon
14. Ocon
15. Lindblad
16. Antonelli
Colapinto nudges Bearman out of the Q3 places with his final lap of the session!
Russell does one more lap, and posts a 1m43.462s to extend his lead at the top. That's Q2 over.
Leclerc improves but stays third, while Albon doesn't get a tow here and only gets up to 13th.
Sainz goes ninth, but can he stay there?
Russell does another lap but doesn't improve. Lindblad goes off at Turn 1 and gets the car turned around - he'll hope he has time to prepare for one more.
Verstappen then posts a time good enough to go second, 0.02s off Russell's effort. Lawson goes 11th. Ocon stays 13th.
Elimination zone with three minutes to go
11. Colapinto
12. Ocon
13. Albon
14. Lawson
15. Lindblad
16. Antonelli
Colapinto gets into 10th, while Gasly immediately puts him back into the drop zone with seventh. Alpine get their first laps done.
Verstappen doesn't improve on his second lap, but Hadjar's popped up to third - sans slipstream.
Bearman moves up to eighth, having got a tow off Hadjar, as Ocon moves ahead of Albon.
Hamilton then goes fifth, as Leclerc doesn't improve.
Leclerc gets a 1m43.835s to go fastest, but it lasts fleetingly as Russell posts a 1m43.686s. As it stands, we've got both Williams and Ocon in the top 10, but the Alpines are now on track.
Sainz posts a 1m44.849s to kick off. Albon is about 0.2s behind that.
Verstappen then grabs a 1m44.282s to move to the top, but Hadjar then finds half a tenth more on that.
Norris then finds even more time, a 1m44.020s; Piastri then sets a 1m44.050s. McLaren doing a Madring and turning up out of nowhere?
Quite a lot of build-up work here to do the right level of tyre prep. Sainz might be about to go for a lap now.
Still no sign of the Alpines just yet.
Lindblad's gone too deep at Turn 4, and has to back up and reverse. Brief yellow, but he's out of danger.
The Alpines have yet to go out.
Q2 begins!
It's time to shake off that first session and go again. The Williams pair are out first, followed by Verstappen, Lawson, and Hadjar.
Quite a few drivers just stayed on one set of tyres through the whole session - Ocon broke into the top 10 with a third flyer on the same set.
The C5s are lasting.
Antonelli has, in essence, booked 16th on the grid with his Q1 wall-clip, so just the five positions to fill. A Q3 opportunity beckons for Haas and Williams here.
Eliminated in Q1
17. Bortoleto
18. Hulkenberg
19. Alonso
20. Perez
21. Bottas
22. Stroll
So, who can escape the drop? Sainz fires up to eighth, that's a good lap, while Bearman and Ocon both get into the top 11. Albon then gets into eighth.
Stroll has stopped somewhere on track
Hulkenberg only goes 18th and he's out. Perez can't improve, he's out. Bottas improves with a tow off Lawson, but he's out too.
Norris gets up to sixth with his latest lap, but he's struggling to keep the car settled in Turn 16. Still, that's an improvement and should book his place into Q2.
Russell gets a tow off Albon, and posts a 1m43.615s to go top by 0.4s.
Elimination zone with 3 minutes to go
17. Bearman
18. Hulkenberg
19. Alonso
20. Perez
21. Bottas
22. Stroll
Yeah, big clunk in Turn 1 as Antonelli tagged the wall with his front left tyre, and snapped the track rod. He should be okay to make Q2, but he won't be taking any further part in the session.
Leclerc goes third, 0.083s behind Russell - but Hadjar's finding time in that first sector, and Verstappen finds a boatload of time in sector two.
This is a 1m44.041s for Verstappen, who goes top again. Hadjar then gets a 1m44.161s, it's a Red Bull 1-2.
Antonelli pulls off! That's it. "We can't fix this, mate," Bonnington says.
Verstappen went top, but Russell then found 0.002s over Verstappen to return to the #1 spot.
Hamilton gets up to fourth, while Norris was on a good lap but he's hurt himself with a dodgy exit through Turn 16. Only 12th here, as he reports a problem.
Piastri moves up to third, 0.8s faster than a tow-less Norris. Verstappen meanwhile complains that the car is bottoming out.
Antonell reports that he's hit the wall somewhere. If it was a glancing blow, it'll probably be okay...but that's definitely not okay. His front tyre is done, and he might have suspension damage...
Colapinto gets a 1m45.768s, while Gasly is down on that after his first lap.
Bortoleto was second, 0.4s down, but Verstappen then moves to the top with a 1m45.168s. Hadjar then sets a 1m44.702s to go top himself.
The Mercedes have a difficult first run, Antonelli 0.8s off Hadjar, while Russel struggles with the front locking.
Hamilton goes second after soaking up a big tow off Stroll. Leclerc then goes fourth.
Stroll locks up at Turn 7 and has to reverse out of the corner. He's not had a great day so far, after clipping the wall in FP3 and had to pull at Turn 4 to retire.
The yellow flag is quickly cleared, as drivers start to set some times after two warm-up laps.
Everyone may get multiple laps out of these tyres; wear is low, so you might want to fuel up and stay on-track for a number of runs - or at least do a few prep laps to get the softs in the window.
Let's see how the teams are tackling it today.
After a four minute delay, here we go. Bottas, Colapinto, Perez, and Gasly are the early takers.
Q1 will begin in about three minutes' time, so it's a dash for everyone to get ready. Cars already going into the pitlane.
