Mercedes does it again (with a one-two finish) to grab the pole.
BAKU, Azerbaijan- April 27th: A combination of red flags and bitter disappointments greeted the drivers on Saturday qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Azerbaijan. Lasting three hours to complete, Valtteri Bottas won his second consecutive pole with his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton second. That outcome gave the Silver Arrows another 1-2 on the grid. Sebastian Vettel finished third in his Ferrari.
The Finn managed to take the pole at the very last second, but the delay in the qualifying cooled the track down later when both Bottas and Hamilton were able to conduct faster times.
“I am very happy, it was a nice feeling,” Bottas said.
The delays started in the very first session when, just before the end of the period, Robert Kubica crashed his Williams and brought out the first red flag. The Pole was unhurt, but it took a half of an hour to sweep the debris up at turn eight, and that gave Pierre Gasly the best time of 1:41:335.
But the Frenchman had already been penalized for race day when his Red Bull failed to pass a weight inspection during the previous practice sessions. It demoted Gasly to start the race from the pit lane on Sunday–along with a further problem when it was discovered that Gasly had a lower fuel ratio than is normal when he posted his fastest time. That situation is being looked over by the race stewards at the time of this writing.
Leclerc’s crash (photo, Daily Express)
As the qualifying went into the second session, Charles Leclerc struck the same barriers as Kubica, which brought out another half hour delay. Leclerc was also unhurt but was frustrated. Because of the late start of the qualifying, it was just beginning to get dark. That gave the Mercedes drivers, who were trying to catch both Max Verstappen (best time in the second session) and Vettel even competition to vie for the pole.
Nico Hulkenberg, eliminated in the first round, was joined in the following period by Carlos Sainz Jr., Daniel Riccardo, and Alexander Albon in not progressing any further to the final period. For the American Rich Energy Haas F1 Team, Romain Grosjean joined Hulkenberg in being eliminated in the opening session. Kevin Magnussen exited the second. Gasly never took part in the second session because of his race day situation, and Leclerc, despite his accident, will start the race from 10th–even though he never participated in qualifying period three.
Verstappen ended up fourth, while Sergio Perez gave Racing Point their first top ten qualifying results with fifth. Dani Kvyat achieved his personal best of the year in sixth, and Lando Norris in his McLaren was seventh. Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen gave Alfa Romeo a good sign to stay best of the rest with eighth and ninth places, respectively.
Most drivers got a tow and ran faster times on a tight street circuit like this one. But Bottas felt that his winning time was not due to this. “I did not get a tow in the last lap,” Bottas explained. “It was about details and it was getting trickier and trickier, and we were not supposed to race here at this time.”
***You can watch Sunday’s Grand Prix of Azerbaijan live on ESPN2, starting at 8 a.m.
