Leclerc Beats Red Bulls To Azerbaijani Pole
Calum Gill 17:02 11/06/2022
Charles Leclerc claimed his sixth pole position of the 2022 Formula 1 season with a commanding lap in Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying.
An intense session in which all four of the leading contenders had mild wall brushes - and which was delayed first by knock-on late-running third practice session following a messy crash at the end of the Formula 2 race and then by a red flag for a Lance Stroll shunt in Q1 - ended with Leclerc 0.282 seconds clear up front on a 01:41.359. Leclerc looked set to share the front row with Max Verstappen until Sergio Pérez’s last-gasp lap inched his Red Bull team-mate off the front row despite being delayed getting out for his final Q3 run due to a fuel issue in the garage. Carlos Sainz had been on provisional pole in the other Ferrari after the initial Q3 runs, then didn’t improve with his second lap and fell to fourth behind Verstappen.
George Russell was the top Mercedes again in fifth, two tenths of a second and two places ahead of Lewis Hamilton - who was under investigation for driving excessively slowly in Q2, but later cleared of any wrongdoing. Hamilton seemed to be hunting for a tow at the time and briefly had both McLarens queued behind him. Rows three and four are shared by Mercedes and AlphaTauris, Pierre Gasly between Russell and Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda eighth having hung on for a Q3 place despite locking up, clipping the wall and slewing down an escape road late in Q2. Sebastian Vettel - a podium hero in Baku for Aston Martin last year - reached Q3 and starts ninth. Fernando Alonso put Alpine 10th.
Alex Albon accused Alonso of deliberating holding up a pack of cars in the late 2 and a half minutes scramble following the Q1 red flag and then going down an escape road to cause a yellow. Both McLarens went out in Q2, with Norris’s late trip down an escape road more costly than the earlier Hamilton delay. He’ll share row six with team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. Esteban Ocon couldn’t emulate Alpine team-mate Alonso’s progress into Q3 so starts 13th ahead of the Alfa Romeos of Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas - rookie Zhou outqualifying Bottas for the first time.
Stroll’s crash at Turn 2 in Q1 came on the lap after he’d already nosed into the barriers at Turn 7, though there was no obvious damage from that first incident. As well as causing the red flag, it left him out in Q1 for a third straight race and on the back row of the grid just ahead of Mick Schumacher’s Haas. The other Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Williams duo Albon and Nicholas Latifi were the other Q1 departures.
