Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) will start in pole position for the Azerbaijan GP on Sunday

The streets of Baku remain his property in qualifying: Charles Leclerc took pole position for the third time in a row at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the 4th round of the Formula 1 season, and will start on Sunday ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen .

On the shores of the Caspian Sea, the Monegasque offers his first pole of the season, the first also for the Scuderia: “I am surprised!“, reacted Friday the poleman on arrival. “I’m very happy with my lap, the feeling was good from the start, so I’m very happy (…) we know the car is good».

A moment best lap in qualifying in perfect equality with Verstappen – extremely rare circumstances – the 25-year-old driver managed to get out of the game at the very end of the session, relegating the reigning double world champion to second place on the grid. .

In the streets of Baku, where the outcome is often unpredictable (six different winners in six contested races), starting from pole position certainly does not guarantee victory at the finish. And for good reason: Verstappen won there last year, starting from third place … behind poleman Leclerc. Only the German Nico Rosberg in 2016 and the Finn Valtteri Bottas in 2019 managed to win in Azerbaijan by starting from pole.

A special sprint day

On Sunday, the other Red Bull of Mexican Sergio Pérez, 3rd, and the Ferrari of Spaniard Carlos Sainz will start on the second row, ahead of Briton Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 5th. This is the first time since the start of the season that Hamilton will start ahead of his young teammate George Russell, only 11th.

Provisional third in the championship behind the two Red Bulls, the Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) will start 6th, his worst position since the start of the season. The Azerbaijan GP is the first of the six races of the season to offer a sprint on Saturday, a format inaugurated in 2021. With the sprint races, qualifying is brought forward to Friday, with a novelty this year since it determines the grid for start of the Sunday GP. Until then, Leclerc and others will once again have the opportunity to shine on Saturday, a day which will be mainly devoted to sprinting.

The drivers will take to the track at 10:30 a.m. for a second qualifying session on the same model as Friday’s but shorter, which will determine the starting order for the sprint race, which will take place at 3:30 p.m. Long of just over 100 km swallowed up in about thirty minutes (i.e. 17 laps in Baku), this race offers some bonus points in the championship: from eight points for the first to one point for the 8th.

Tricky route

Proof that the Azerbaijani track, a clever mix of speed and driving in the old town, can be tricky, the first part of qualifying (Q1) was interrupted twice, first because of a track excursion by Nyck de Vries (Alpha Tauri). The time to clear the Dutchman’s single-seater, qualifying resumed but a few moments later, it was the Frenchman Pierre Gasly who came to embed his Alpine, where de Vries had failed. If the two drivers came out unscathed, they will start on the last line on Sunday.

Gasly is having a nightmarish start to the weekend. Earlier in the day, the 27-year-old Norman had seen his engine go up in smoke just a quarter of an hour after the start of the first – and only – weekend tests. His team had narrowly managed to repair his Alpine so that he could take part in qualifying. His teammate Esteban Ocon, who also stayed most of the tests in the garage because of a potential problem in the back of his car, will start 12th.

Read alsoFormula 1: program, route, prize list… Everything you need to know about the Azerbaijan Grand Prix