Qualifying results 2018 Azerbaijan F1 Grand Prix

Top 3 qualifiers 2018 Azerbaijan: 1. Vettel, 2. Hamilton, 3. Bottas

Event: Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Track:  Baku street circuit.

Weather:  Overcast,  22ºC
Tarmac: Dry, 26.5ºC
Wind speed : 5.5 km/h
Humidity: 47.1%

Sebastian Vettel scored his 53rd pole position for the 2018 Azerbaijan F1 Grand Prix tomorrow. It was the 3rd pole for Vettel in a row this season and the 216th pole for the Ferrari team.

In the first laps of Q1 Romain Grosjean had to retire his Haas VF-18 with a broken gearbox. Both Red Bull Racing drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo drove the first lap times of the top teams and topped the time-sheet shortly, because both Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen improved Red Bull's times ride away.

At the end of the session Max Verstappen was able to kick in a great lap to become 2nd behind the very fast Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. In the same lap Pierre Gasly almost crashed into the car of his Toro Rosso team mate Brandon Hartley who had a puncture and was driving very slow on the middle of the track. Gasly had to go into a run off area to avoid a crash.

F1 Rookie Charles Leclerc did a great job by qualifying 11th for the first time and made it to Q2 for the first time. Lance Stroll was the last car to cross the finish line with his Williams and pushed out McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne out. Surprisingly both Williams drivers got into Q2. Gasly, Ericsson, Hartley and Grosjean also didn't make it.

In Q2 Force India driver Esteban Ocon was the first who set a lap time and Lewis Hamilton locked up. Raikkonen and Stroll also missed a corner and used the run off area to avoid a collision.

Hamilton and Bottas drove almost an identical lap time with only 0.003 sec. difference to become 1st & 2nd. At the end of the session Raikkonen sets the fastest lap time in the Ferrari and Stroll, Sirotkin, Alonso, Leclerc and Magnussen got eliminated for Q3.

The only top driver who didn't set his fastest lap on the red super soft compound was Raikkonen. He will have to start on the ultra soft tyre compound tomorrow.

The final Q3 was a tight one between the top 6 drivers. In the first stint Vettel was fastest, Hamilton 2nd on 3 tents, Bottas 3rd, Verstappen 4th. Daniel Ricciardo was 5th and brushed the wall in turn 15 and wanted to get a new set op tyres.  Raikkonen gone wide in turn 16 to become 6th.

The 2nd and last stint Hamilton finished as first but didn't drove faster and Ricciardo improved and became 4th. Verstappen drove a quicker lap but had to settle for 5th. Kimi Raikkonen was quickest until turn 16, where his Ferrari back broke out and he lost a lot of time.

See an overview of all 2018 F1 drivers with pictures and all statistics.

Qualifying results 2018 Azerbaijan GP

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