George Russell on pole in Baku as Kimi Antonelli crashes out of Azerbaijan GP qualifying
Kimi Antonelli crashed into the barrier in Q1 during qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on Friday, eliminating the championship leader, while Mercedes team-mate George Russell set the fastest time to take pole.
Antonelli, 20, hit the wall at the 90-degree left-hand turn one after only 11 minutes of running and suffered damage to the track rod and a puncture; his race engineer, Pete Bonnington, told him: "We can't fix this, mate." The incident left him unable to participate in Q2 and he will start 16th on the grid unless higher-placed drivers take grid penalties. Antonelli leads Russell by 81 points, has won the last two races and recorded eight wins this season; this was his first serious error since crashing in final practice at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Russell delivered a confident lap to claim pole, registering a time of 1:42.5362 and finishing 0.837 seconds clear of Charles Leclerc, whose Q3 time was 1:43.3633; Leclerc has four poles in Baku. Mercedes said Russell had been quick throughout the Azerbaijan weekend and outpaced his team-mate on Friday.
Qualifying Q3 opened with McLaren’s Lando Norris briefly leading before team-mate Oscar Piastri improved and edged ahead by a tenth. McLaren had introduced a package of upgrades for Baku, and after pitting their drivers for fuel top-ups Russell stayed out, produced a push lap aided by a tow from Isack Hadjar and regained the lead by almost half a second as the McLarens rejoined the track.
Russell’s final hot lap was notably strong in the first sector and he improved through the lap to secure pole. The top 10 from qualifying read: 1 George Russell Mercedes 1:42.5362; 2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:43.3633; 3 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:43.364; 4 Isack Hadjar Red Bull 1:43.500; 5 Lando Norris McLaren 1:43.672; 6 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:43.858; 7 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:44.047; 8 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:44.081; 9 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:44.566; 10 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1:44.963.
Those eliminated in Q2 were: 11 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:44.775; 12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:44.860; 13 Alexander Albon Williams 1:45.001; 14 Esteban Ocon Haas 1:45.016; 15 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls 1:45.106; 16 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:45.504. Q1 eliminations were: 17 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:45.799; 18 Nico Hülkenberg Audi 1:45.920*; 19 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:46.593; 20 Sergio Pérez Cadillac 1:46.658*; 21 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:47.337; 22 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac 1:48.920. Alonso and Stroll will start 21st and 22nd because of power-unit penalties.
Antonelli’s season-so-far resilience was underlined by his recovery from 19th to victory at Monza, and the long straights in Baku present overtaking opportunities that could allow a comeback. The weekend will be another stern examination of his ability to protect a large championship lead.
Russell’s pole places him in a strong position to make up ground in the title chase in Saturday’s race; if he converts the advantage on race day he will have at least kept his slender title hopes alive, while the decisive action for both Mercedes drivers now comes on Saturday.