Charles Leclerc Upsets Red Bull for Pole in Azerbaijan

Charles Leclerc stormed to his first pole position since the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix during Friday’s (April 28) qualifying for Formula 1’s 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Leclerc usurped the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to take the top spot while his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz had to settle for fourth on the grid after struggling for competitive pace throughout Q3. This pole is Leclerc’s third consecutive first-place start on the streets of Baku, a streak dating back to 2021.

“For sure, I’m surprised,” Leclerc told Sky Sports’ Mark Webber after the session. “We came into the weekend thinking that it would be a great weekend if we are in front of Aston [Martin] and Mercedes in qualifying and at the end we are on pool. So it’s a really good surprise. We must not forget that our race car is maybe still behind the Red Bull, so it’s going to be difficult to keep the lead but that’s the target.”

The results of Friday’s qualifying session have determined the starting order for Sunday’s (April 30) Grand Prix, while Saturday (April 29) will see the debut of the newly-minted Sprint format, featuring a shootout qualifying session in the morning with the effectively standalone F1 Sprint later in the day.

Q3

The heat turned up early in Q3 when Verstappen and Leclerc set identical times of 1:40.445; Verstappen was scored ahead of Leclerc by setting his time prior to Leclerc’s. This was the first time – to the memory of the commentary team – that two cars had set identical qualifying times since the famous three-way tie in qualifying for the 1997 European Grand Prix at Jerez.

Leclerc’s early show of pace carried well throughout Q3 as the rest of the field seemed quiet compared to the three-way fight between himself, Verstappen and Perez.