2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Qualifying Review

Linus O'Howell
Sep 20
3 min read

One of the craziest Qualifying’s in recent memory took place today as multiple Red Flags flew around the streets of Baku!

Q1

In Qualifying 1, Franco Colapinto, Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, and Alex Albon were the five slowest drivers! Franco Colapinto will not feel good about smashing his Alpine to pieces, whilst Nico Hulkenberg also crashed for Kick Sauber! Esteban Ocon simply wasn’t fast enough for Haas, but he was at least able to beat fellow Frenchman Pierre Gasly, who also went off at Turn 4! However, the worst performance definitely went to Alex Albon, as the Thai made a poor misjudgement to hit the wall at Turn 1, taking him out of the session completely (what a missed opportunity)! Lando Norris topped Q1 for McLaren, just 9 thousandths quicker than Max Verstappen’s Red Bull!

Q2

In Qualifying 2, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Gabriel Bortoleto, Lance Stroll, and Oliver Bearman all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! Fernando Alonso was unlucky to miss out on Q3 by just 7 hundredths of a second, whilst Lewis Hamilton will be very disappointed to have suffered a shock Q2 exit! Gabriel Bortoleto could only manage P13 for Kick Sauber, ahead of the other Aston Martin of Lance Stroll (who made a mistake on his final run), whilst Oliver Bearman failed to get a time on the board after whacking the wall at Turn 2! It was Verstappen’s turn to top Q2 for Red Bull, a tenth and a bit clear of Norris!

Q3

In Qualifying 3, a classy 1:41.117 was enough for Max Verstappen to take a triumphant Pole Position around the Baku City Circuit! In a Qualifying session that lasted 2 hours (and included 6 Red Flags), of course it was Max who delivered the ultimate lap! Carlos Sainz did an incredible job to put his Williams onto the Front Row, whilst a round of applause should also be sent out to Liam Lawson who did a splendid job to take P3 for Racing Bulls! Andrea Kimi Antonelli did a great job to out-qualify teammate George Russell (the two Mercedes will start 4th and 5th) whilst Yuki Tsunoda had his best result yet in a Red Bull, albeit a second off his teammate’s Pole lap! Whilst a golden opportunity was presented to him, Lando Norris failed to take advantage, hitting the wall on his final lap, whilst Isack Hadjar will join him on the 4th row! And finally, Oscar Piastri made a shocking error to crash out of Qualifying at Turn 3; a rare mistake from the Championship leader, whilst Charles Leclerc also did the same thing at Turn 15 (what a disastrous day for Ferrari)!