Charles Leclerc on pole for Azerbaijan F1 GP as Lando Norris struggles to 17th

Charles Leclerc took pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a dominant lap in Baku for Ferrari but there was a shock for Lando Norris, whose Formula One world championship ambitions suffered a major blow as he qualified in 17th. His title rival Max Verstappen was in sixth for Red Bull, Oscar Piastri second for McLaren, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in third, and Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez in fourth. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were in fifth and seventh for Mercedes.

After closing the gap to Verstappen in recent races, this represents a major setback for Norris and McLaren. The team had taken a chance in not using new tyres for Norris’s first run in Q1. With the track gaining grip as the session opened, it left Norris vulnerable in the drop zone as lap times improved and made his final lap vital.

He was on course to advance until a yellow flag forced him to back off and abort the lap. He was eliminated in 17th and he will do well to make it into a points scoring position on Sunday, giving Verstappen the chance to once more extend his 62-point lead in the world championship.

Norris confirmed he had lifted off for yellow flags. “Everyone did their second laps, and I didn’t. Just unlucky, that’s all,” he said. “I’m still hopeful we can get a good result. I think the car is quick. The lap I was on, I would have gone second. But nothing I can do.”

After a weekend that has been dominated by McLaren’s proposed use of team orders to benefit Norris over Piastri, the entire debate was rendered moot in a matter of moments as Norris faces a long afternoon of damage limitation on Sunday. His engineer, Will Joseph, commiserated on team radio. “Mate. I’m sorry,” he said.

At the front of the grid, Leclerc had demonstrated his confidence with the first hot lap in Q3, a time of 1min41.610sec was two tenths up on Sainz, with Piastri just behind. The track was still improving however and on the second runs Piastri went quicker and claimed second place but Leclerc went quicker again to take pole by a full three-tenths of a second.

Verstappen and Pérez also improved but could not threaten Leclerc, of more import for them is how they now approach the race. Red Bull have been explicit they expect Pérez to support Verstappen’s title charge and he can be expected to act accordingly if able to help move his teammate up the order.

The pole is important for what has been a decidedly underperforming Ferrari since Leclerc took his first win of the season at Monaco and comes on the back of a fine win at the last round in Monza. The car looked genuinely strong on the streets of Baku.

Leclerc has real form in qualifying in Baku, with this his fourth pole in a row in Azerbaijan but it remains a race he has yet to convert into a win. With his pace so far he has every chance to finally close out a victory. He now has three poles this year, with one in Monaco and having also inherited the top spot at Spa after Verstappen took a grid penalty.

Britain’s Oliver Bearman, once more demonstrated great composure to take 11th place for Haas in front of his teammate Nico Hülkenberg who was 14th. The 19-year-old will make his F1 full season debut with the team next year but is standing in for Kevin Magnussen who has a one race ban after reaching the maximum penalty point allocation in Monza. Bearman made his F1 debut in Saudi Arabia earlier this season when he stood in at Ferrari for Carlos Sainz and took seventh place.

Alex Albon was hugely unlucky in having his Williams sent out with a cooling fan still attached to it, an extraordinarily unusual occurrence and counting as an unsafe release, which is under investigation. He pulled over and removed the fan himself to continue and try an put in a final lap but did not have time to start it and finished in 10th.

Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin, while Franco Colapinto was an impressive ninth for Williams. Yuki Tsunoda was 12th for RB, Pierre Gasly 13th for Alpine and Lance Stroll 15th for Aston Martin.

Daniel Ricciardo was in 16th for RB, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in 18th and 19th for Sauber but the latter will start from the back of the grid with penalties for exceeding his use of powerunit components. Esteban Ocon was 20th for Alpine.