F1 Azerbaijan GP live commentary and updates – race

Lap 19

Leclerc pits, and takes the hard tyre. McLaren might need to react to that with Norris reasonably soon.

Lap 19

Verstappen now leads by 4.8s over Sainz, who is 4.6s ahead of Lawson. Russell is now free to catch the Racing Bulls driver.

The Albon/Colapinto clash is now under investigation...

Lap 18

Antonelli is going to pit, which frees up Russell. He'll take the hard tyre and will presumably go to the end on those. 

Colapinto pitted to react to Albon, but there was contact between the two at Turn 5! The move wasn't really on for Albon there, so that might be a penalty coming his way.

Colapinto was pitched into a spin, went into the wall, but gets his car going again.

Lap 17

Leclerc has fallen out of Tsunoda's DRS range, which might give. Norris a chance here.

Hamilton had locked up at Turn 7 on the previous lap, so avoided biffing the wall.

Piastri is still down at Turn 5, watching the race on a phone. Put your feet up, lad.

Lap 16

Albon elects to swap to hards, and avoid the Colapinto train. Stroll is still stuck behind the Argentine, so it's not a bad idea.

"I think I've got a tyre advantage to get past Lawson," Russell says, indeed asking for a swap position command in a roundabout kind of way. 

Lap 15

Antonelli has a peek into Turn 1 but decides not divebomb on Lawson. Russell must surely be angling for a swap deal with his team-mate.

Leclerc's stuck behind Tsunoda, and Norris is stuck behind the Ferrari driver in turn. Hamilton is keeping his distance for the time being.

Albon passes Gasly for 17th, and can now join the Colapinto Express.

Lap 14

The race appears to have settled a bit, as Colapinto has Stroll, Hulkenberg, and Bearman for company.

Russell is now in Antonelli's DRS range, as the Italian renews his challenge on Lawson. Mercedes smells a podium here.

Lap 13

Verstappen's lead over Sainz is now up to 3.3s. 

Bearman's put a move on Gasly, as the Frenchman fell out of the DRS train led by his team-mate Colapinto. 

Lap 12

Antonelli is still within Lawson's DRS range, but doesn't quite have enough to make the move. That said, Lawson has done enough to clear off any DRS threat on the run to the line.

Lap 11

"Keep on top of management, you know our plan for the day," Verstappen is told by Gianpiero Lambiase.

On the hards, Verstappen will go long - which gives him options if there's rain. Sainz isn't letting the Dutchman completely check out, however.

Lap 10

Tsunoda does well into Turn 1, but can't contain Russell any longer and the Mercedes breaks past on the run to Turn 3.

Leclerc and Norris will be next up to try and clear the Red Bull. 

Verstappen has now broken the two-second gap over Sainz now, while Antonelli still sits in Lawson's DRS range.

Lap 9

...and Tsunoda defends again into Turn 1. Norris is keeping on Leclerc's tail, but doesn't quite have the straightline speed to eat into the Ferrari's pace. The tow from Tsunoda and Russell might help.

Bortoleto has passed Alonso for 11th. 

Lap 8

Norris is right on Leclerc's tail, while Hamilton has passed Hadjar with DRS. 

Sainz and Lawson are holding firm behind Verstappen, although Antonelli now has DRS on the Kiwi. Tsunoda's still under fire from Russell...

Lap 7

Russell tries to get past Tsunoda with DRS, but the Red Bull held him off into Turn 1. He's still on the Japanese driver's tail, as Tsunoda's struggling to keep tabs on Antonelli.

Alonso is informed of his five-second deduction. "I reacted to Piastri, sorry," Alonso says, as he accepts his penalty. 

Lap 6

Leclerc passed Hadjar at the end of lap 5, which gives Norris the chance to break past the VCARB machine. Hamilton is now trying to displace the Frenchman, but he holds on through the opening corners. 

Norris' restart hadn't been the best, which allowed Leclerc to break past at the start of lap 5.

Lap 5

Verstappen pulls the pin, and buys himself enough ground on Sainz to hold into Turn 1.

Russell tries to do Antonelli around the outside, but he's kept at bay and that lets Tsunoda steal past for fifth. Leclerc also snatches eighth from Norris. 

Verstappen lets the safety car slink away, and he'll restart as late as possible. Sainz will attempt to keep hold of him on the run to Turn 1...

Hulkenberg and Ocon had a little clash out of Turn 6 as the two coalesced as the two bunched up.

Ocon has stopped again, switching back to the hards. He can go to the end, if he so wishes.

Piastri's car has been removed, so the barrier is now being pushed back into position.

Piastri jumped the start, and then stopped as an immediate reaction to that. That sent him down the order, and precipitated his later crash.

We saw Hadjar dive past Norris at Turn 2, and the McLaren driver didn't fight that too hard. Leclerc held ninth, as Hamilton zipped past Alonso - who also appeared to jump off the blocks response to Piastri ahead. 

Tyre watch

Mediums: Sainz, Lawson, Antonelli, Norris, Hadjar, Piastri, Leclerc, Alonso, Stroll, Colapinto, Albon.

Hards: Verstappen, Russell, Tsunoda, Hamilton, Bortoleto, Bearman, Hulkenberg, Gasly, Ocon.

Here we go then - Verstappen, Sainz, Lawson, and Antonelli our top four on the grid. McLarens and Ferraris starting slightly out of position, and inclement weather expected.

This could be fun. Could be. As the cold-hearted cynic I am, I'm keeping a lid on expectations.

10 minutes to go!

James Vowles told Sky that there might be some rain coming an hour into the race. Currently, the FOM weather report says that there's a 10% chance of rain to come. 

Air temperature of 21C, track at 28C, so it's a nice room-temperature kind of day in the City of Winds...

The Racing Bulls team are affixing the engine cover back onto his car, so it seems the hydraulics fixes are done. 

Good work from the team, and he'll get rolling from eighth on the grid.

Hadjar appears to have a hydraulic issue while on the grid. His Racing Bulls team is attempting to resolve it before he gets going - they've got maybe 20 minutes.

The Frenchman qualified eighth, but felt that third place should have been in the offing. He was almost a tenth up on Lawson before the final corner, but his exit cost him about 0.6s at the line.

118 minutes of qualifying

Yesterday's qualifying session lasted longer than any of the races we've had so far this year.

One man less enamoured with the lengthy run-time was Max Verstappen - he was unable to watch his GT3 team take victory in a GT World Challenge race in Valencia.

“I was really pissed that I missed the entire race because F1 qualifying took so long!" Verstappen chuckled in his Dutch media session post-quali.

"But when I grabbed my phone after I got out of the car and saw the result, everything was fine again."

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images

Overnight rain: how will the circuit change?

It rained relatively heavily in Baku last night, and a little this morning before F2 kicked off. Although it dried in short order, the circuit's still going to be relatively green.

And, depending on the wind, it'll likely be a different prospect to yesterday. Gusts around Turn 4 seemed to catch a lot of people out in qualifying, particularly as the wind speeds were occasionally around 40kph. 

Azerbaijan Grand Prix grid

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Time	Tyres	km/h
1	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		Red Bull	Red Bull	1'41.117		213.720
2	C. Sainz Williams	55		Williams	Mercedes	+0.478 1'41.595		212.715
3	L. Lawson RB	30		RB	Honda	+0.590 1'41.707		212.480
4	A. Antonelli Mercedes	12		Mercedes	Mercedes	+0.600 1'41.717		212.460
5	G. Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	+0.953 1'42.070		211.725
6	Y. Tsunoda Red Bull Racing	22		Red Bull	Red Bull	+1.026 1'42.143		211.573
7	L. Norris McLaren	4		McLaren	Mercedes	+1.122 1'42.239		211.375
8	I. Hadjar RB	6		RB	Honda	+1.255 1'42.372		211.100
9	O. Piastri McLaren	81		McLaren	Mercedes
10	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		Ferrari	Ferrari
11	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		Aston Martin	Mercedes	+0.740 1'41.857		212.168
12	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44		Ferrari	Ferrari	+1.066 1'42.183		211.491
13	G. Bortoleto Sauber	5		Sauber	Ferrari	+1.160 1'42.277		211.296
14	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		Aston Martin	Mercedes	+1.944 1'43.061		209.689
15	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87		Haas	Ferrari
16	F. Colapinto Alpine	43		Alpine	Renault	+1.662 1'42.779		210.264
17	N. Hulkenberg Sauber	27		Sauber	Ferrari	+1.799 1'42.916		209.984
18	P. Gasly Alpine	10		Alpine	Renault	+2.022 1'43.139		209.530
19	A. Albon Williams	23		Williams	Mercedes	+2.661 1'43.778		208.240
20	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31		Haas	Ferrari
View full results

Qualifying recap

I don't know what the word limit is for each live post box is, but I guarantee it's probably not enough to accurately convey what happen in yesterday's qualifying session.

In short: six red flags, a Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz front row, high winds, light drizzle, and the championship leader in the wall.

In long? I'll just repost yesterday's qualifying report.

Formula 1

F1 Azerbaijan GP: Verstappen denies Sainz pole in chaotic qualifying as Piastri crashes

Max Verstappen edges Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson in a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix Formula 1 qualifying

It's time: the Azerbaijan Grand Prix awaits

Hello everyone, and welcome to our live text feed for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix - 51 laps around the Baku City Circuit beckon for our intrepid cast of 20 drivers.

Are you ready? Then let's begin...or at least, we will do in an hour's time.

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls Team

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images