Leclerc will start ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in Sunday’s race after the one-hour qualifying session on Friday, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.
This is the first weekend run to the latest sprint race weekend format, with another qualifying session tomorrow for the sprint event on Saturday in Baku.
What happened in Azerbaijan Grand Prix Q1?
Verstappen set the early pace at 1m41.887s, two tenths clear of Leclerc, but the session was red flagged with 10 minutes to go when Nyck de Vries crashed his AlphaTauri at Turn 3.
Barely three minutes into the restart, Pierre Gasly shunted his Alpine at the same corner, putting him out of the session too. Meantime, Carlos Sainz spun his Ferrari at Turn 1 and continued.
At the second resumption, Perez briefly took the top spot with 1m41.756s, before Verstappen wrested it back with 1m41.398s. Right at the end of the session, Leclerc grabbed P1 with 1m41.269s, 0.129s faster than Verstappen.
Falling at the first hurdle were Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo, who suffered an early spin at Turn 1), the Haases of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen (who had an issue with his car and was told to pit) and shunters Gasly and de Vries.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix Q1 results: Leclerc fastest from Verstappen
What happened in Azerbaijan Grand Prix Q2?
Perez set the initial pace at 1m41.131s, 0.062s quicker than Verstappen with Leclerc 0.085s adrift in third. Leclerc then took a second push lap and beat them all by a tenth on 1m41.037s.
The Red Bulls pitted and ran again: Verstappen retook P1 with 1m40.822s, 0.215s faster than Leclerc.
Knocked out at this point were George Russell (Mercedes), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Alex Albon (Williams), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) and Logan Sargeant (Williams).
Azerbaijan Grand Prix Q2 results: Verstappen fastest from Leclerc
What happened in Azerbaijan Grand Prix Q3?
On the first runs, Verstappen set the benchmark at 1m40.445s, which Leclerc matched to the thousandth of a second, but placed second as he set the time just a few seconds later.
On the final runs, Leclerc grabbed pole with a lap of 1m40.203s, 0.188s ahead of Verstappen, who could only manage 1m40.391s. Almost three tenths off the pace, Perez will start third, ahead of Sainz, Hamilton, Alonso, Lando Norris (McLaren), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Oscar Piastri (McLaren), the latter setting…
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