Charles Leclerc claimed his fourth consecutive pole place on the Baku Metropolis Circuit, underlining his credentials as a grasp of the high-speed road monitor.
However his efficiency isn’t the one cause why Ferrari are in such good condition on the monitor. In any case, Oscar Piastri was the one driver from both of Ferrari’s rival groups to beat a Ferrari, although it’s important to suspect Lando Norris would have carried out the identical within the different McLaren had it not been for his Q1 misfortune.
It’s uncertain both would have crushed Leclerc, nonetheless. Even when Piastri had strung his three greatest sector occasions collectively on a single lap he nonetheless would have been virtually two tenths of a second off the Ferrari.
Leclerc was on it from the phrase go in Baku, and shrugged off his first follow crash with complete assuredness. “The automotive felt actually good since FP1,” he mentioned after taking pole place. “Truthfully, we barely modified the automotive from FP1 to now.”
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Ferrari should be praised for the standard of the job they’ve carried out in recapturing their early season type. They have been the most effective a part of a second off pole place simply two races in the past. Their efficiency this weekend is an extra vindication of the work they did to treatment the high-speed bouncing they suffered with the SF-24 and improve they launched at Monza.
Nonetheless the true potential of the SF-24 in its newest guise could not turn out to be clear for a number of extra races. That is the third time this 12 months Ferrari had the outright quickest automotive. The earlier event was in Monaco, one other monitor characterised by low grip and low-speed corners. Singapore, the following venue on the calendar, is extra of the identical.
One unusual element of this weekend’s race is the vehicles are on common slower than they have been final 12 months. Leclerc was a full second off his 2023 pole place time. No group lapped faster than they did at this monitor a 12 months in the past.
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The reason for this seems to be the choice to not pressure-wash the monitor floor, as was carried out in earlier years. In consequence the monitor situations have improved considerably from session to session. “We needed to counter just a little bit the monitor evolution as a result of there’s numerous monitor evolution right here,” Leclerc acknowledged.
Williams additionally underlined the enhancements they’ve made with their newest improve as each their drivers reached Q3. Certainly, they could effectively have crushed Aston Martin to fifth-fastest group, equalling their greatest efficiency of the season. However a blunder with a cooler on Alexander Albon’s automotive prevented him from doing a flying lap on new tyres on the finish, and Fernando Alonso benefited from a tow on the straight to set the quickest ultimate sector time of qualifying.
Sector occasions
| P. | # | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Final lap (deficit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | 35.702 (2) | 40.813 (1) | 24.825 (10) | 1’41.340 (+0.025) |
| 2 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | 35.782 (4) | 40.972 (2) | 24.803 (6) | 1’41.557 (+0.129) |
| 3 | 11 | Sergio Perez | 35.649 (1) | 41.043 (4) | 24.966 (17) | 1’41.658 (+0.155) |
| 4 | 1 | Max Verstappen | 35.897 (5) | 41.014 (3) | 24.781 (5) | 1’41.692 (+0.331) |
| 5 | 63 | George Russell | 36.045 (7) | 41.052 (5) | 24.602 (2) | 1’41.699 (+0.175) |
| 6 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 35.716 (3) | 41.138 (6) | 24.908 (15) | 1’41.762 (+0.043) |
| 7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | 36.064 (8) | 41.611 (12) | 24.524 (1) | 1’42.199 (+0.170) |
| 8 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | 36.174 (10) | 41.407 (9) | 24.651 (3) | 1’42.232 (+0.057) |
| 9 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | 36.158 (9) | 41.403 (8) | 24.766 (4) | 1’42.327 (+0.146) |
| 10 | 23 | Alexander Albon | 36.338 (13) | 41.353 (7) | 24.831 (11) | 1’42.522 (+0.318) |
| 11 | 50 | Oliver Bearman | 36.032 (6) | 41.689 (14) | 24.978 (19) | 1’42.699 (+0.269) |
| 12 | 4 | Lando Norris | 36.397 (14) | 41.568 (10) | 24.803 (6) | 1’42.768 (+0.841) |
| 13 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | 36.51 (17) | 41.578 (11) | 24.818 (8) | 1’42.906 (+0.129) |
| 14 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | 36.266 (11) | 41.823 (16) | 24.89 (13) | 1’42.979 (+0.109) |
| 15 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | 36.337 (12) | 41.822 (15) | 24.849 (12) | 1’43.008 (+0.093) |
| 16 | 18 | Lance Stroll | 36.487 (16) | 41.892 (17) | 24.899 (14) | 1’43.278 (+0.092) |
| 17 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | 36.854 (19) | 41.617 (13) | 24.961 (16) | 1’43.432 (+0.115) |
| 18 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | 36.474 (15) | 42.32 (19) | 24.824 (9) | 1’43.618 |
| 19 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | 36.851 (18) | 42.428 (20) | 24.967 (18) | 1’44.246 |
| 20 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | 36.916 (20) | 42.214 (18) | 25.174 (20) | 1’44.304 (+0.200) |
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