Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took pole place on the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the fourth 12 months in a row as Lando Norris suffered a blow to his hopes of gaining floor on title rival Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
Norris, who’s making an attempt to shut a 62-point hole to Verstappen over the ultimate eight races of the 12 months, encountered yellow flags on his last lap within the first session and faces a troublesome Sunday.
He certified seventeenth, however will begin sixteenth as a result of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who certified thirteenth, has been disqualified from qualifying for a technical infringement.
Verstappen is in higher form however may nonetheless handle solely sixth quickest as Crimson Bull continued to wrestle for tempo in comparison with their rivals.
Verstappen’s issues – his team-mate Sergio Perez was two locations forward of him in fourth place – ought to have offered Norris an ideal alternative to capitalise.
The Briton’s team-mate Oscar Piastri certified second to Leclerc and forward of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
However Norris’ difficulties within the first session imply he will likely be making an attempt to restrict the harm slightly than inflict it on the Dutchman.
Leclerc, who was 0.321 seconds faster than Piastri, will likely be going for his second win in a row after victory in Ferrari’s residence Italian Grand Prix two weeks in the past.
However regardless of his unmatched tempo over one lap in Baku, he has by no means gained a grand prix across the streets of town on the shores of the Caspian Sea.
“Previously we’ve been struggling on race tempo however this 12 months we’re higher within the races so I’m hopeful we are able to lastly do it tomorrow,” Leclerc stated.
Leclerc has had an incident-packed weekend, crashing in first observe on Friday after which struggling issues together with his automobile within the second session, two issues that value him about half his typical operating time on the primary day of the weekend.
“It’s certainly one of my favorite tracks. I actually prefer it,” Leclerc stated, including that it had “not been a simple weekend”.
He stated: “I used to be a bit not frightened and I knew we needed to make up a while, however the tempo was at all times there and in qualifying it was all about making an attempt to remain so far as doable from the partitions after which within the final lap I went for it a bit extra and the lap time got here very properly.”
Mercedes driver George Russell certified fifth, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton seventh, forward of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
Franco Colapinto took ninth for Williams, forward of British-born Thai Alex Albon, a formidable efficiency from the Argentine on solely his second outing for Williams after being drafted in to exchange the sacked American Logan Sargeant a race in the past.