#AzerbaijanGP Qualifying: @CharlesLeclerc beats @Max33Verstappen to pole. #F1 #BakuGP

Leclerc Azerbaijan GP Pole – Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has stormed to pole position in qualifying for Sunday’s Azerbaijan GP, completing a hattrick of poles in Baku and beating Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez who were second and third respectively.

The Monegasque driver secured his first pole position of the year on his final hot-lap, with a 1:40.203, having found solid pace from a strong opening run in the final proceedings of qualifying to prove untouchable for the Red Bull drivers.

In the final segment, Verstappen held provisional pole position with his effort of a 1:40.445 and ahead of Leclerc who posted the same identical lap time after the Dutchman set his initial flyer whilst Perez was a further 0.118 behind his Red Bull team-mate in third. Leclerc had the advantage over Verstappen in the opening sector, but Verstappen had it covered in the final two sectors.

In the final Q3 flying tours, Leclerc was the first of the trio to emerge down and was quickest in sector one until Perez snatched it from the Ferrari driver. But Perez was comparatively slower than Leclerc who made up for it big time to clinch his 19^th-career pole position with a 1:40.203 and ended up 0.188 seconds quicker than Verstappen who claimed a purple final three sector and Perez who ended up a further 0.292 seconds adrift of the Monegasque driver in third.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz placed alongside Perez on the second row of the grid by taking fourth place, with his effort on his initial flyer, a 1:41.016 enough to remain in-front of Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who qualified in fifth and sixth respectively.

McLaren’s improvements saw Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri bring the Woking based-outfit into Q3 as both drivers took seventh and 10^th respectively.

Splitting the McLaren pairing was Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who were eighth and ninth respectively with the latter encountering a DRS issue.

In Q2, which was topped by Verstappen, Mercedes’ George Russell missed out on a Q3 appearance by a very narrow 0.004 seconds and wound-up 11^th and ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who was 12^th.

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant qualified in 13^th and 15^th respectively as Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas split the pairing in 14^th.

In the first qualifying stage, which was topped by Leclerc, in a session that was hampered by red flags due to shunts into the wall by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly (hitting the wall at turn three, tearing off his right-hand side-pod and part of his rear wing) and AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries (hitting the barriers straight on into turn three), Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu was the quickest of the Q1 eliminatees in 16^th and in-front of Haas F1 Team duo Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen who were 17^th and 18^th respectively.

Magnussen having suffered an engine issue earlier in the session, reported to his team in qualifying that the car felt fine. But the Kannapolis/Banbury outfit told him not to risk it and brought him into the garage, leaving the Dane unable to better his time from the opening proceedings in the session.

The aforementioned Gasly and de Vries brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2023 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1207/azerbaijan/qualifying.html

2023 Azerbaijan GP – The Top Three

2023 Azerbaijan GP Pole Position – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-23, 1:40.203:

“For sure, I’m surprised. We thought it would be great to be in front of Aston Martin and Mercedes in qualifying. Really happy with the lap, the feeling was good since the start so really happy. The pace seems strong, we know the car is good.”

2^nd Place – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing – Honda-RBPT, RB19, +0.188:

“It’s always tough here to put the whole lap together. Around here, it’s just really hard, you are on the limit trying to make everything perfect. We know we have a very good race car so all in all, it’s not too bad.”

3^rd Place – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing – Honda-RBPT, RB19.: +0.292:

“It was tricky in Q1 with the amount of red flags. It was really challenging, I’m a bit disappointed to be sittingP3, I felt there was more in it. My lap wasn’t that clean but if there’s a circuit you can race it is definitely here.”

#AzerbaijanGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen pips @CharlesLeclerc to top time-sheets. #F1 #BakuGP

#Formula1 #AzerbaijanGP 2023 Preview. #F1