Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from seventh and ninth places respectively after an exceptionally disrupted qualifying session in Baku. The street circuit produced six separate crashes during qualifying — a record number of red-flag stoppages for a single session — as variable wind and patchy conditions repeatedly unsettled the field.
The first significant incident came when Williams driver Alex Albon struck the inside wall at Turn One early in Q1. Albon later described it as “a bit of a rookie mistake”, saying he had been surprised by differing grip levels between laps.
Further crashes followed around the track. Nico Hülkenberg and Franco Colapinto both ran into the barrier at Turn Four, the latter doing so despite yellow flags in the area. Haas driver Oliver Bearman hit the wall at Turn Two in Q2 after an oversteer moment, and both Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri went off in Q3 — Leclerc at Turn 15 and Piastri at Turn Three.
Piastri summed up the combination of factors at play: “You add in wind, kind of a tyre uncertainty, a little bit of rain, cold conditions on a street track like this and stuff’s going to happen.”
Norris described the challenge of coping with a tiny margin for error: “quite incredible”. He also stressed the role of gusting wind in many of the incidents: “I wish everyone could understand how difficult it was with the wind. I would say half the crashes you saw today were probably because of wind. Not all. Some of them were just braking too late and then trying to go for something that’s not there.”
Piastri’s Q3 crash left an apparent opportunity for Norris: with Piastri set to start ninth, Norris had the chance to capitalise and move to the front of the grid. On his final flying lap the McLaren driver made a sequence of small mistakes and then hit the wall at Turn 15. He damaged the car side-on but was able to continue; his time was still around a second slower than pole.
Asked whether he had missed a clear chance, Norris said: “No, because I still did everything I could.”
He explained his tactical decision to be the first car out on the final run: “I went out first and it was just the wrong decision to make in the end. If everyone else got a yellow (flag) behind because someone else went off behind me, you wouldn’t be asking me this question. Sometimes it goes your way around here, sometimes it doesn’t.
“We thought we took a better option. I think it would have been if it wasn’t splitting. It just started to spit again before the final run. And then going out first is just the incorrect thing.
“So, something we’ll learn from. But no, the opportunity is there every single weekend to be on pole. I try and do that every weekend, and today I struggled more because of not making the best decision. But that’s a hindsight thing, not an incorrect one at the time.”
Ferrari endured another difficult qualifying in a season that has seen inconsistent results. Charles Leclerc, who has a strong record around Baku, said: “It has been a extremely difficult weekend overall for me. Normally Baku is a track I really enjoy driving but it has been a bit of a pain for me, struggling with the balance of the car.”
Leclerc added that tyre choice affected their performance: “I changed quite a lot the car going into qualifying, which made it better but we couldn’t make the medium work any more. We started to struggle massively to bring the medium to temperature and then I did this mistake, which cost us a lot.”
His team-mate Lewis Hamilton had a different view on what went wrong, saying he had felt competitive and “thought I might get pole today”. He identified tyre strategy as the key error: “We should have used a medium in Q2. That’s what everyone else did, we knew it was quicker and I can’t tell you why we didn’t end up using it, but we will take it internal. It’s definitely tough to be in 12th, but as I said, I don’t think that’s from my driving. It’s just execution.”
The mixed-up grid sets up an unpredictable race, with Max Verstappen on pole and a string of slower cars between him and the McLaren pair. That could make it hard for Norris and Piastri to reach the front quickly, especially if Verstappen opens a gap on the opening laps.
McLaren can still secure the constructors’ title on Sunday if they outscore Ferrari by nine points and avoid being outscored by Mercedes by 12 points and Red Bull by 33. Team principal Andrea Stella warned of the threat posed by the world champion’s return to form: “A firm yes. Can you write it capital? Because it was quoted capital.
“We don’t have to forget that, first of all, it’s Max Verstappen. World champion for the last four years, in a fast car.
“There are races where McLaren may not enjoy any advantage from a competitiveness point of view.
“And also Lando and Oscar, they are always there, so they will not necessarily be maximising the points available. Sometimes there will be a little bit more points for Lando, a little bit more points for Oscar, so they may take some points away from each other.
“We are very aware of this aspect, but we let them race, because they both deserve to pursue their aspirations. Therefore, yes, Verstappen and Red Bull in contention for the drivers’ championship.”
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