F1 qualifying results: Charles Leclerc takes Azerbaijan GP pole

Leclerc will start ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in Sunday’s race after the one-hour qualifying session on Friday, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

This is the first weekend run to the latest sprint race weekend format, with another qualifying session tomorrow for the sprint event on Saturday in Baku.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying results: Leclerc on pole from Verstappen

What happened in Azerbaijan Grand Prix Q1?

Verstappen set the early pace at 1m41.887s, two tenths clear of Leclerc, but the session was red flagged with 10 minutes to go when Nyck de Vries crashed his AlphaTauri at Turn 3.

Barely three minutes into the restart, Pierre Gasly shunted his Alpine at the same corner, putting him out of the session too. Meantime, Carlos Sainz spun his Ferrari at Turn 1 and continued.

At the second resumption, Perez briefly took the top spot with 1m41.756s, before Verstappen wrested it back with 1m41.398s. Right at the end of the session, Leclerc grabbed P1 with 1m41.269s, 0.129s faster than Verstappen.

Falling at the first hurdle were Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo, who suffered an early spin at Turn 1), the Haases of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen (who had an issue with his car and was told to pit) and shunters Gasly and de Vries.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix Q1 results: Leclerc fastest from Verstappen

Cla	Driver		Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Charles Leclerc		1'41.269			213.399
2	Max Verstappen		1'41.398	0.129	0.129	213.128
3	Fernando Alonso		1'41.720	0.451	0.322	212.453
4	Sergio Perez		1'41.756	0.487	0.036	212.378
5	George Russell		1'42.073	0.804	0.317	211.719
6	Lewis Hamilton		1'42.113	0.844	0.040	211.636
7	Lando Norris		1'42.154	0.885	0.041	211.551
8	Alex Albon		1'42.171	0.902	0.017	211.515
9	Carlos Sainz		1'42.197	0.928	0.026	211.462
10	Yuki Tsunoda		1'42.234	0.965	0.037	211.385
11	Logan Sargeant		1'42.242	0.973	0.008	211.369
12	Oscar Piastri		1'42.455	1.186	0.213	210.929
13	Lance Stroll		1'42.524	1.255	0.069	210.787
14	Valtteri Bottas		1'42.582	1.313	0.058	210.668
15	Esteban Ocon		1'42.622	1.353	0.040	210.586
16	Zhou Guanyu		1'42.642	1.373	0.020	210.545
17	Nico Hulkenberg		1'42.755	1.486	0.113	210.313
18	Kevin Magnussen		1'43.417	2.148	0.662	208.967
19	Pierre Gasly		1'44.853	3.584	1.436	206.105
20	Nyck de Vries		1'55.282	14.013	10.429	187.460
View full results

What happened in Azerbaijan Grand Prix Q2?

Perez set the initial pace at 1m41.131s, 0.062s quicker than Verstappen with Leclerc 0.085s adrift in third. Leclerc then took a second push lap and beat them all by a tenth on 1m41.037s.

The Red Bulls pitted and ran again: Verstappen retook P1 with 1m40.822s, 0.215s faster than Leclerc.

Knocked out at this point were George Russell (Mercedes), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Alex Albon (Williams), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) and Logan Sargeant (Williams).

Azerbaijan Grand Prix Q2 results: Verstappen fastest from Leclerc

Cla	Driver		Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen		1'40.822			214.346
2	Charles Leclerc		1'41.037	0.215	0.215	213.889
3	Sergio Perez		1'41.131	0.309	0.094	213.691
4	Carlos Sainz		1'41.369	0.547	0.238	213.189
5	Fernando Alonso		1'41.370	0.548	0.001	213.187
6	Lando Norris		1'41.485	0.663	0.115	212.945
7	Yuki Tsunoda		1'41.569	0.747	0.084	212.769
8	Lance Stroll		1'41.576	0.754	0.007	212.754
9	Oscar Piastri		1'41.636	0.814	0.060	212.629
10	Lewis Hamilton		1'41.650	0.828	0.014	212.600
11	George Russell		1'41.654	0.832	0.004	212.591
12	Esteban Ocon		1'41.798	0.976	0.144	212.291
13	Alex Albon		1'41.818	0.996	0.020	212.249
14	Valtteri Bottas		1'42.259	1.437	0.441	211.333
15	Logan Sargeant		1'42.395	1.573	0.136	211.053
View full results

What happened in Azerbaijan Grand Prix Q3?

On the first runs, Verstappen set the benchmark at 1m40.445s, which Leclerc matched to the thousandth of a second, but placed second as he set the time just a few seconds later.

On the final runs, Leclerc grabbed pole with a lap of 1m40.203s, 0.188s ahead of Verstappen, who could only manage 1m40.391s. Almost three tenths off the pace, Perez will start third, ahead of Sainz, Hamilton, Alonso, Lando Norris (McLaren), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Oscar Piastri (McLaren), the latter setting exactly the same laptime as Stroll.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix Q3 results: Leclerc takes pole

Cla	Driver		Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Charles Leclerc		1'40.203			215.670
2	Max Verstappen		1'40.391	0.188	0.188	215.266
3	Sergio Perez		1'40.495	0.292	0.104	215.043
4	Carlos Sainz		1'41.016	0.813	0.521	213.934
5	Lewis Hamilton		1'41.177	0.974	0.161	213.593
6	Fernando Alonso		1'41.253	1.050	0.076	213.433
7	Lando Norris		1'41.281	1.078	0.028	213.374
8	Yuki Tsunoda		1'41.581	1.378	0.300	212.744
9	Lance Stroll		1'41.611	1.408	0.030	212.681
10	Oscar Piastri		1'41.611	1.408	0.000	212.681
View full results

What happened in Azerbaijan Grand Prix FP1?

With the new format being run for the first time, teams wanted as much running as possible in this sole one-hour practice session.

But this was hampered by Gasly’s Alpine springing a hydraulic leak that caught fire, which caused a red flag. Magnussen also went off at Turn 1, following a loss of fuel pressure.

Verstappen topped the session by 0.037s from Leclerc. Perez was a tenth off the pace in third, ahead of Sainz, Norris and de Vries.

Mercedes suffered brake issues and were only 11^th and 17^th with Hamilton and Russell respectively.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix FP1 results: Verstappen fastest

Cla	Driver		Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen		22	1'42.315			211.218
2	Charles Leclerc		21	1'42.352	0.037	0.037	211.141
3	Sergio Perez		22	1'42.454	0.139	0.102	210.931
4	Carlos Sainz		23	1'42.899	0.584	0.445	210.019
5	Lando Norris		22	1'43.125	0.810	0.226	209.559
6	Nyck de Vries		24	1'43.414	1.099	0.289	208.973
7	Lance Stroll		23	1'43.455	1.140	0.041	208.890
8	Fernando Alonso		20	1'43.560	1.245	0.105	208.679
9	Alex Albon		25	1'43.628	1.313	0.068	208.542
10	Zhou Guanyu		23	1'43.748	1.433	0.120	208.300
11	Lewis Hamilton		21	1'43.798	1.483	0.050	208.200
12	Oscar Piastri		23	1'43.980	1.665	0.182	207.836
13	Valtteri Bottas		23	1'44.010	1.695	0.030	207.776
14	Yuki Tsunoda		18	1'44.137	1.822	0.127	207.522
15	Nico Hulkenberg		21	1'44.323	2.008	0.186	207.152
16	Logan Sargeant		16	1'44.900	2.585	0.577	206.013
17	George Russell		20	1'45.082	2.767	0.182	205.656
18	Esteban Ocon		8	1'45.955	3.640	0.873	203.962
19	Pierre Gasly		7	1'46.321	4.006	0.366	203.259
20	Kevin Magnussen		8	1'47.498	5.183	1.177	201.034
View full results