2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Qualifying Review

Linus O'Howell

11 minutes ago

2 min read

With a national holiday incoming, Qualifying ahead of the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix took place on a Friday around the streets of Baku!

Q1

In Qualifying 1, Gabriel Bortoleto, Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, and Valtteri Bottas were the six slowest drivers! Despite bringing a ton of upgrades, Audi had an absolute disaster, with both Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg getting knocked out! Fernando Alonso managed to beat Sergio Perez in the first Aston Martin VS Cadillac battle (Checo also received a grid drop), whilst Lance Stroll also headed Valtteri Bottas in a session where it felt like Stroll went off at least 3 times! George Russell managed to top Q1 for Mercedes, some 4 tenths clear of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull!

Q2

In Qualifying 2, Oliver Bearman, Liam Lawson, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon, Arvid Lindblad, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! Oliver Bearman was unfortunate to miss out on his first Q3 appearance since China by less than a tenth of a second, whilst Liam Lawson qualified 12th on his return to Racing Bulls! Neither Alex Albon nor Esteban Ocon were particularly happy with their final laps in Q2, with Ocon particularly angry after getting done over by yellow flags! Arvid Lindblad ultimately ended up slowest in Q2, as Andrea Kimi Antonelli failed to set a lap time on the board after crashing in the first part of Qualifying! A rare mistake by the runaway Championship leader! Just like Q1, it was Russell ahead of Verstappen out front!

Q3

In Qualifying 3, a fantastic 1:42.526 was enough for George Russell to take a crushing Pole Position! George decimated the rest of the field today, taking Pole by well over 8 tenths! Ridiculous! Charles Leclerc managed to pip Oscar Piastri to a front-row start by just a single thousandth of a second, whilst the other spot on row 2 goes to Isack Hadjar on his return from injury! Well done, Isack! A mistake on his final run meant Lando Norris will have to start from P5, ahead of a very slow Lewis Hamilton, whilst Pierre Gasly did a brilliant job to end up P7 for Alpine! Despite being strong the entire weekend, Max Verstappen will only start from P8 after a messy Q3, whilst Carlos Sainz did a fantastic job to beat Franco Colapinto to P9! Unfortunately for Carlos, despite getting Williams into Q3 for the first time all season, he will only start from 14th after a post-Quali penalty!