Azerbaijan GP qualifying: Bottas on pole, Leclerc crashes in Q2

Bottas lapped 0.059 seconds faster than Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who was in the tow behind him, on the final runs in Q3 to grab top spot, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel three tenths down in third place.

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen only had one run in Q3 and ended up fourth, almost three tenths behind Vettel and well clear of fifth fastest Sergio Perez.

Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat was sixth ahead of McLaren driver Lando Norris.

Antonio Giovinazzi headed Alfa Romeo team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in the battle for eighth place, although the Italian must serve a 10-place grid penalty for taking his third power unit control electronics of the season earlier in the weekend.

Leclerc was classified 10th in Q3 as his pace on medium-compound Pirellis before he crashed meant he made the top 10 - but he was unable to run in the pole session.

Leclerc was the faster Ferrari driver in free practice and Q1, but hit the wall at the narrow Turn 8 after locking up the front-left on entry during Q2 -calling the error "stupid" over the radio.

Carlos Sainz Jr was 11th fastest after being pushed into the dropzone by McLaren team-mate Norris at the end of Q2 - missing out on a place in Q3 having lapped just 0.017s slower than Giovinazzi.

That put Sainz ahead of Renault's Daniel Ricciardo, with Alex Albon 13th after clipping the wall with the right-rear of Toro Rosso late on in a Q2 session interrupted by the red flag that followed Leclerc's crash.

Kevin Magnussen was 14th due to locking up and heading up the Turn 3 escape road on his final lap.

Red Bull driver Pierre Gasly, who must start from the pitlane as a punishment for missing the weighbridge during Friday practice, was 15th and did not run in Q2.

But he did set the fastest time in Q1 with the help of a mighty tow from Lance Stroll's Racing Point.

Stroll was eliminated in Q1 for the fourth time this season, relegated to 16th by Ricciardo at the end of the session.

Ricciardo positioned himself behind Stroll for his final lap, benefiting from the tow both in the first and last sectors to take the position by a tenth and a half.

Haas driver Romain Grosjean was 17th after not improving by enough on his final lap, although it was sufficient to beat Nico Hulkenberg, who had briefly jumped ahead of him, by 0.02s.

George Russell was 19th having missed almost all of Friday's running as a result of hitting a manhole cover early in the abandoned morning practice session, forcing the Williams team to rebuild his car around the spare monocoque.

Robert Kubica was slowest after crashing at the Turn 8 left-hander on his final push lap as a result of tagging the inside wall behind the apex.

This brought out the red flag and delayed the start of Q2, although little running was lost as the chequered flag had already been thrown.

Provisional starting grid