Leclerc claimed 4th consecutive pole position, Perez second

Charles Leclerc comes out on top at the Azerbaijan GP. In the narrow streets of Baku, he took pole position with a time of 1:49.359, his 4th in a row and 6th overall this season.

Sergio Perez defeated his teammate and will start on Sunday in second ahead of Max Ferstappen. In 4th place Carlos Saint, who had little contact with the wall.

With another scintillating lap at the end of the qualifying rounds, Charles Leclerc continues to build on his legend as one of the best drivers in modern F1 in one lap. The time of 1:41.359 he achieved in the end was like another Monegasque ‘bunny off the hat’.

At the same time, in one round of classification tests, the Ferrari F1-75 proved its ability to warm up its tires faster, but there’s something even more encouraging for Scuderia: its top speed on the Baku straight isn’t as low as it was in Miami, and it will be for that race can be crucial.

In the first attempt of the four champions in Baku’s Q3, Carlos Sainth had his first year. But in the second, last three minutes, everyone but the Spaniard managed to improve their times, although things didn’t go as planned for RBR.

Milton Keynes’ team intended to eliminate Perez and Ferstappen and a formation to allow the Dutchman to take advantage of the empty air behind his Mexican counterpart RB18. However, a mechanical problem in Perez’s car prevented the team from succeeding. But again Perez was quicker than Ferstappen in the end, as he had been all two days, leaving the champion on the second row of the grid.

In the end, Ferstappen didn’t want to address the issue, just saying so “We started the lap well, but then it slipped out of my hands with small mistakes”. Earlier, Christian Horner paid tribute to Perez over the air and told him so “very good performance Czech, especially without vacuum”.

For his part, Perez said: “In the end we had a problem with the engine, we couldn’t bring it to the front, so I went out on the track alone without anyone offering me a vacuum cleaner in front of me. Who knows how much I lost I could probably.” drive to pole position”.

However, Leclerc’s time was quite long. “It is a great feeling! Maybe I didn’t expect it because I thought Red Bull would be faster. I’m excited for tomorrow’s race, tire management is a big issue here. will be of great interest.”

Despite his myriad troubles, Mercedes emerged 3rd on the grid, with 5th for George Russell and 7th for Lewis Hamilton – separated by Alpha Tauris two-day-old Pierre Gasley. However, Hamilton risks a possible penalty at the start with suspicions that he stopped the two McLarens too late at the end of Q2.

Despite hitting the wall gently in Q2, Sebastian Vettel passed in Q3 with an unexpectedly fast Aston Martin AMR22. She was eventually found half a tenth behind Yuki Chunoda’s Alpha Tauri and about as much ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Alpine, once again coaxed by her rider.

Qualifying testing was red flagged for a few minutes in Q1 due to Lance Stroll’s collision with the other AMR22s in the barriers. The Canadian was not injured, unlike his car, which spilled debris onto the tarmac and took a break to be cleaned.

After losing a confident and much-needed title win in Monaco, Charles Leclerc needs an answer in Baku to narrow his lead over Max Ferstappen at the top of the league – while Sergio Perez lurks. It will be an unpredictable GP and its start is scheduled for 14:00 (Greek time).