Antonelli crashes in Baku qualifying and will start Azerbaijan GP 16th
Kimi Antonelli crashed into a wall and damaged the suspension of his Mercedes during qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on 25 September 2026, ending his session early and leaving him to start Saturday's race 16th. Team-mate George Russell took pole after a dominant performance.
Antonelli described the incident as "a very stupid one", saying: "I misjudged with the grip being so different compared to the first lap. I hit the wall. Unnecessary mistake early on. "So it's a good way to come back to earth and to remind myself I need to be on top of it every time because otherwise I do these mistakes and a very stupid one." He added that he was "very mad about it" and had been battling to recover time after Mercedes suffered a hydraulic leak halfway through the first practice session, with the car not ready to return to track until halfway through the second session.
In practice and qualifying runs before the crash Antonelli had been competitive on pace, finishing final practice 0.252secs behind Russell and recording a first qualifying lap 0.092secs quicker than the Briton before his second-lap error. Russell, Antonelli's nearest title rival, starts from pole and is 81 points adrift in the championship.
Russell's pole came with a margin of 0.837secs; Ferrari's Charles Leclerc qualified second and Oscar Piastri third. Reflecting on Antonelli's error, Russell said: "You can't discount Kimi. You know, started 19th in Monza and now he's in 16th, so, yeah, he should be leading by a few laps early this time." He also commented on the rarity of such mistakes for Antonelli: "But he's been flawless this season. It's the first mistake he's made in a qualifying or race this whole year."
The session revived memories of last year's Baku weekend, when McLaren's Oscar Piastri appeared on course for his first world title while leading team-mate Lando Norris by 31 points, only for Piastri to crash in qualifying, jump the start and then crash out of the race on the first lap, with his season subsequently derailed.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who qualified eighth, had been quickest in final practice just ahead of Russell but encountered problems in qualifying. He said: "The whole qualifying was not how it should be. Already from Q1 the engine was 0.5secs down on the straight compared to my team-mate and they can't explain or understand why. So you're on the back foot. "Then in Q3 on my middle lap my battery didn't charge to 100% so I had to abort the lap which means you lose tyre temp and around here that's killing. "I tried to push... but being down on top speed and I had a yellow flag from Lando in front of me, [which] meant that's where we are." He added: "The whole weekend we were running really well and then we run into so much trouble in qualifying. It's not good enough. "Looking at George's lap, I don't think we would have fought for pole but there is a big gap behind and we should have slotted in to that easily. "But when you have that many issues you also don't deserve to be there. We need to be more robust and we need to be on top of these things." Russell also warned that Verstappen "is going to be a threat" in the race.
The Baku street circuit features a long straight that affords strong overtaking opportunities and has a reputation for producing incident-packed races.
Saturday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix will start at 12:00 BST on 26 September, with live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live and build-up from 11:00, and live text updates available on the BBC Sport website and app.