Baku Quali: LeClerc Pole, Red Bull 2-3

Charles Leclerc produced a stunning lap to claim pole position in F1 qualifying at Baku, ahead of Red Bull pair Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.

Sensational lap by LeClerc at Baku

Leclerc stormed to his sixth pole of the season with a sensational lap that was 0.282s faster than Perez, who was again the quickest Red Bull driver in Baku after jumping his teammate with a last-gasp improvement to take second. 

Reigning world champion Verstappen, who leads the world championship by nine points over Leclerc heading into Sunday’s race, ended up 0.347s adrift of the Monegasque’s pole time. 

Carlos Sainz had sat on provisional pole after the opening salvo of Q3 but a scruffy final lap from the Spaniard, coupled with improvements from his rivals, dropped the Ferrari driver to fourth and nearly half a second down. 

Mercedes a distant third

Ferrari and Red Bull were in a league of their own around the streets of Baku, with George Russell 1.3s off the pace in fifth for Mercedes. 

Pierre Gasly put his AlphaTauri sixth to split the Mercedes drivers, with Lewis Hamilton qualifying seventh.

The seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is still struggling with the 2022 Mercedes. Their porposing issues just not going away. Hamilton was P7 in Quali.

The second AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunooda was eighth, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, who completed the rest of the top 10 for Aston Martin and Alpine. 

McLaren missed Q3 by a tiny fraction

Lando Norris missed out on Q3 by just 0.022s as he finished 11th. He was 0.011s ahead of McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo. 

Esteban Ocon took 13th. F1 rookie Guanyu Zhou outqualified Alfa Romeo teammate Valtteri Bottas for the first time this season. 

Kevin Magnussen was 16th ahead of the Williams duo headed by Alex Albon. However, Albon was furious at Alonso for ruining his final flying lap.

The second Williams of Nicholas Latifi was P18.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was knocked out in 19th after crashing twice in two laps. Having already hit the Turn 7 barriers, the Canadian ended up in the wall at the exit of Turn 2. Thus he broke his front wing and suspension, ending his quali session.

The struggling Mick Schumacher was slowest of all in 20th for Haas. 

Baku 2022 starting grid : LeClerc and Checo on the front row