George Russell delivered an impressive performance to secure pole position for Mercedes at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by a stunning margin of 0.837 seconds. Meanwhile, his team-mate and championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, suffered a Q1 crash that leaves him starting in 16th place.
Russell maintained absolute control throughout qualifying, capturing his first pole since the Austrian Grand Prix in late June. “That’s probably the biggest margin I’ve had in my whole career,” Russell said. “The lap felt really sweet and the car has been feeling great all weekend.”
Leclerc acknowledged Ferrari’s expected grid position but expressed surprise at Mercedes’ raw pace, noting that while the placement was predictable, the massive lap-time deficit certainly was not. Saying that the position was what he expected but the gap most definitely was not, leclerc was somewhat taken aback by Mercedes’ superiority.
Antonelli’s session came to a sudden halt during his second flying lap in Q1 when he turned into Turn One too early, clipping the inside wall and breaking his front-left suspension. Although he asked to drive back to the garage, race engineer Peter Bonnington confirmed the upright or track rod was broken, preventing any quick fix before the next segment.
The mistake compounded a challenging weekend for the Italian, who leads Russell by 81 points in the standings. Antonelli had already lost half of Thursday’s track time to a hydraulic problem. The crash marks his first significant error since driving into the barrier during final practice at the Australian season opener.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri secured third place, followed by Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in fifth. Lewis Hamilton placed sixth after running without a slipstream tow from another car, finishing ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Verstappen’s final push was compromised while following Norris, who ran off track and denied the four-time champion a clean slipstream—a tow that was worth up to 0.5 seconds along the long Baku straight. Verstappen noted he had the speed for a front-row start, though he admitted beating Russell’s benchmark was out of reach. That scuppered Verstappen’s chances of competing closer to the front.
Further back, Williams enjoyed a breakthrough session as Carlos Sainz qualified ninth, marking the team’s first top-10 grid start of the year. Williams introduced a lighter chassis this weekend, reaching the weight limit after starting the season up to 25kg overweight, alongside targeted aerodynamic updates that suited the Baku circuit. There was finally some good news for Williams, for whom Carlos Sainz achieved the team’s first top 10 qualifying performance of the year, at the bottom of the top 10. It appears to have produced a big step forwards, although the caveat is that Baku is a track that suits the characteristics of the Williams car and does not expose its weaknesses, along with some additional developments.
Sainz’s team-mate Alex Albon struggled for straight-line speed and missed out on a tow during Q2, leaving him 13th overall and nearly 0.4 seconds behind the Spaniard.
Race and Coverage Details
- Race Time: Saturday, 26 September at 12:00 BST
- Coverage: Live commentary on Radio 5 Live from 11:00 BST, with live text updates on Sport website and app
Qualifying Top 10 Results
- George Russell (Mercedes)
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
- Isack Hadjar (Red Bull)
- Lando Norris (McLaren)
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Carlos Sainz (Williams)
- Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
