F1 Azerbaijan GP Live Commentary and Updates - Qualifying
Saturday's qualifying session for the 17th round of the 2024 Formula 1 season
George Russell ended final practice fastest of all ahead of Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying.
The Mercedes set a late effort to take the advantage into this afternoon's grid-setting session, with Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren all in with a chance of pole, such is the competition in Baku.
Who will come out on top? Qualifying gets under way at 1pm BST.
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Close call in the pit lane as Russell is almost collected by Piastri and Colapinto.
Luckily, all cars made it onto the track unscathed - other than Gasly and Stroll who remain in their garages.
Q2 is go!
It's worth pointing out that Norris was wide at T16, straddling the kerb on the exit and losing time anyway.
Norris was going around a slower Alpine as he came down the main straight on the final Q1 lap he aborted - he then passed a green light panel, so it may be he was given a yellow flag warning and was forced to back off.
That result ends McLaren's 100% Q3 record for the season. How crucial it could be.
So much has been said about team orders at McLaren and whether Piastri will help as Norris chases the drivers' title. Well, that's out the window for tomorrow at least.
"Mate, I'm sorry."
Silence from Norris in return on team radio.
So Leclerc was fastest from Albon and Piastri, but Ricciardo, Norris, Bottas, Zhou and Ocon are out!
Piastri goes third but yellow flags come out to stop Norris from improving. What a nightmare for the McLaren driver!
He will start 17th.
He was 16th, he goes third. Relief for Verstappen and Red Bull.
McLaren has both drivers in the drop zone as they come into the final sector...
Williams are scorching! Albon goes second and Colapinto third.
Verstappen is so close to the wall at T15 as he pushes to improve.
A scare for Verstappen as yellows come out ahead of him in sector two, but they clear by the time he gets to the scene...
Now the big guns are out to set a lap. Alonso, Bearman, Stroll, Ocon and Zhou are those in the elimination zone, but Verstappen and Piastri are 12th and 11th and will need to improve.
Tsunoda goes from 16th to fourth as track evolution begins to show.
Bottas is getting a huge tow from Zhou and goes from 19th to 10th.
A reminder that Zhou will start from the back tomorrow after an engine change.
Three minutes left and a few drivers are still seeking improvement.
Ricciardo crosses the line and improves to seventh, but his team-mate Tsunoda is faster...
Thing is, Norris and Piastri are eight-tenths off at the moment down in seventh and eighth, although neither is on the track at the moment.
As strange as it sounds, McLaren is actually something of a dark horse here - data I’ve seen from FP2 yesterday suggests Norris was absolutely level with Charles Leclerc’s session-topping time before he got accidentally blocked by Gasly. Leclerc’s lap came much later in the session, amid the major track evolution here, so Norris potentially was right up there. That could be critical come Q3.
Leclerc wasn't hindered though - a 1m42.775 puts him three-tenths up on Russell, who now goes second.
Momentary yellows down at T2 as Sainz runs straight on and has to find reverse. That only seemed to squander laps for two drivers.
Ocon pushes Russell into the drop zone with his latest lap, jumping only to 15th before Gasly pushes both down.
Bearman is on a recovery mission after his shunt earlier and gies 11th, just a tenth down on Hulkenberg.
Mercedes has sent Hamilton and Russell back out on softs as they sit only 13th and 15th following the medium tyre runs.
Albon improves on his latest lap to go seventh, just ahead of Hulkenberg.
Colapinto... WOW! The Argentine pushes his Williams team-mate backwards as he goes third.
Sainz is the last driver to set a lap time, going second fastest and within a tenth of Perez's benchmark.
Bottas, Ricciardo, Gasly, Zhou and Ocon are those at risk after the initial runs.
Trouble for Verstappen? "The car is jumping around like crazy on the rear axle."
Leclerc is the next to cross the line and he splits the two Red Bulls.
Piastri goes fourth, four-tenths down on Perez, with Norris fifth.
That was short-lived as Verstappen goes into the 1m43s, but Perez is flying!
Two-tenths over his team-mate sees the Mexican go top.
Indeed it does, as Albon... and then Colapinto goes fastest!
The early benchmark is sent by Tsunoda, who is fastest of seven to have set a lap so far with a 1m44.531s, but that will drop.
Understandably, the Mercedes duo set off on a second warm-up lap, so all eyes for now turn to those on softs.
Leclerc has been reprimanded for failing to slow properly for yellow flags in FP3 - when Pierre Gasly was down the Turn 2 escape road. The problem was how quickly Leclerc accelerated past an incident he couldn’t properly see, but it hasn’t resulted in a grid penalty.
Plenty of action as cars come onto the track early on - Mercedes opting to burn a set of medium tyres.
Here we go then, Q1 is under way!
Grip levels have been low so far, with almost every driver finding an escape road at some point this weekend already.
Leclerc, Colapinto and Bearman all found the barriers across the three practice sessions - will the 20 drivers keep it clean for the next hour?
Final practice was a much cooler affair compared to yesterday's running, but the temperature has soared ahead of qualifying. How will that impact the pecking order?
On the other side of the garage, Perez is having a much better weekend.
But with the Mexican back towards the front of the pace, Red Bull may need to deploy team orders.
There is a lot of work going on around Verstappen's Red Bull less than 10 minutes before qualifying.
Looks like a set-up change but they have left it very late.
FP3 saw the third different driver top a session this weekend as Russell set the fastest time late in the hour.
Bearman crashed for Haas and lost valuable on-track time, whilst Alpine's Ocon again suffered technical issues in a twice red-flagged session. You can read the full report here!
A story to bring you since final practice is an issue teams will face for this weekend only...
Hello and welcome back to coverage of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend.
Qualifying is just around the corner, who will take pole for tomorrow's race?
By: Ewan Gale
