Last-lap Leclerc is Bak on pole
BY NICK PATTISON CHARLES LECLERC continued his status as F1’s qualifying king this season by taking another pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Ferrari racer saved his best for last as he made it six poles in eight races with a fine final lap, beating Red Bull’s Sergio Perez by 0.282 seconds with title rival Max Verstappen starting from third in Baku.
Leclerc has not managed to convert a pole into victory since the third race of the season since when he has seen a 46point championship lead evaporate into a ninepoint deficit to Verstappen.
George Russell was best of the rest for Mercedes in fifth place behind Carlos Sainz, split from team-mate Lewis Hamilton by Alphatauri’s Pierre Gasly.
Team boss Toto Wolff said Hamilton was trying an experimental set-up that cost performance.
But at least Hamilton escaped any action following an investigation by stewards for driving unnecessarily slowly during the second part of qualifying.
An exasperated Hamilton, told by his team not to drive too slowly, said over the radio: “I don’t know what you expect of me sometimes.”
Hamilton was downcast but “not surprised” to be more than a second and a half down on the leading pack but the Brit was more optimistic about the race.
He said: “There’s lots to look forward to. It’s a tricky and chaotic race, lots that can happen.
“We’re in the top 10 after a really difficult qualifying session, because we were constantly pushing.
“We have a very small window where we can
work this car, and everything we try doesn’t give us what we want, so we make a lot of changes which often come up with the same solution – bouncing – which makes us lose a lot of performance.
“All the performance is when you get the car low, so we said, ‘OK, let’s take a beating on our backs and necks and get the car as low as possible to get that performance’.
“It’s bouncing a little more than the other car, but we’re still there – just very slow on the straights. Maybe we’ll have better race pace, who knows?”