Event: Azerbaijan F1 Grand Prix
Track: Baku street circuit
Weather: dry 24.8°C
Tarmac: dry 37.1°C
Humidity: 70%
Wind: 0.0 m/s W
Pressure: 1015.5 bar
Charles Leclerc qualified as quickest for the 15th time today. The Ferrari driver scored his second pole position for tomorrow's 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. It was the sixth pole of the season for the Monegasque driver and the 236th pole for the Ferrari team.
Q1 session
Because the qualifying session started at 18:00 hours local time, the track and ambient temperature started to drop. Which is better for the engine's horsepower, but worse for getting the tyres up to temperature.
After all drivers had set a lap time Max Verstappen was quickest with a 1:42.938 min. Is teammate Perez was second on +0.260s and Ferrari driver Leclerc was third on +0.287s.
Further into the session the quickest lap time was set by Lelcer, Pérez and than Verstappen again.
With 5 minutes to go the drivers who ad to improve to make it into Q2 were: Alex Albon (Williams), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Nicholas Latifi (Williams), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and MIck Schumacher (Haas).
With 2:30 minutes to go the session got red flagged when Lance Stroll hit the barrier for the second time. The first time he went straight on in turn 7. One lap later he didn't hit the apex in turn 2 and crashed into the barrier and wrecked the left-front of the Aston Martin.
When Q1 restarted 13 cars went out to improve and had to fight hard to get heat in their tyres. Bottas just made it to Q2 and pushed out Haas driver Kevin Magnussen.
Q2 session
In the first run both Ferraris ended up on P1 and P2 after the first run. Carlos Sainz was on top for the first time this quali. With 7 minutes to go Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel gone straight into the barrier at turn 15. Fortunately for him the front wing didn't seemed to be damaged and Vettel could carry on.
With five minutes to go the drivers in the dropzone were: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) and Bottas.
Hamilton almost stood still on the track in the twisty section to try and get a tow on the mainstraight. In the end Hamilton made it into Q3 and pushed out Norris.
Q3 session
In the first run of Q3 Sainz was in front on track and clocked the quickest lap with a 1:41.814 min. Leclerc was only +0.047s slower on P2. Pérez was 3rd on +0.126s and Verstappen was 4th on +0.175s. Best of the rest was AlphaTauri Pierre Gasly on P5 on +1.031s. Mercedes driver George Russell was 6th, Vettel 7th, Hamilton 8th and Alonso 9th and AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda 10th.
In the second and last run Sainz again was first on the track and looked fine until he run a bit wide at turn 2. Leclerc was flying and improved over an incredible 0.5s on Sainz's time to score pole position again.
Last year the pole time was a 1:41.218 min, also driven by Charles Leclerc with the Ferrari.
Qualifying Times 2022 Azerbaijan GP
Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
1 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:42.865 | 1:42.046 | 1:41.359 | 19 |
2 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull | 1:42.733 | 1:41.955 | 1:41.641 | 18 |
3 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:42.722 | 1:42.227 | 1:41.706 | 19 |
4 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:42.957 | 1:42.088 | 1:41.814 | 19 |
5 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:43.754 | 1:43.281 | 1:42.712 | 23 |
6 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1:43.268 | 1:43.129 | 1:42.845 | 23 |
7 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:43.939 | 1:43.182 | 1:42.924 | 22 |
8 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1:43.595 | 1:43.376 | 1:43.056 | 22 |
9 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 1:43.279 | 1:43.268 | 1:43.091 | 18 |
10 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1:44.083 | 1:43.360 | 1:43.173 | 20 |
11 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:44.237 | 1:43.398 | 16 | |
12 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 1:44.437 | 1:43.574 | 17 | |
13 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1:43.903 | 1:43.585 | 13 | |
14 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 1:43.777 | 1:43.790 | 13 | |
15 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 1:44.478 | 13 | ||
16 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:44.643 | 9 | ||
17 | 23 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1:44.719 | 9 | ||
18 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 1:45.367 | 8 | ||
19 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:45.371 | 7 | ||
20 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 1:45.775 | 9 |
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Looking forward to a great race with plenty overtaking
Bottas made it to Q2 according to the text but not so according to the table. Good to see Vettel and Alonso are in the mix but will all the other drivers be blue flagged to give Hamilton a win? When we were in Azerb'n baksheesh ruled everything, to the extent our 'owners' gave us amounts of cash - can't imagine it has changed........
Albon was slightly hypocritical in complaining about Alonso, considering what he did to Leclerc two weeks ago.
Alonso, of course, didn't pull anything purposeful, so pointless accusation. Q1 ending was a mess, though.
Good qualifying for ATs.
Leclerc's last flyer was something else, while Checo out-qualifying Max was unsurprising this time.
Very entertaining Quali, really enjoyed it
I read in a Mexican paper that Jos Verstappen is filing for a name change to Jose Verstappen. Also he has petitioned to adopt Sergio Perez to cover his bets on his ‘son’ winning.
Claasic, a nice bit of Sarcasm LOL
where did you read that rubbish in the mexican sun ha ha
shamilton s over a second off the pace looking forward to seeing him lapped again.
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