LEWIS HAMILTON FASTEST AS DANIEL RICCARDO CRASHES OUT
Lewis Hamilton nabbed pole position in a frenetic end to qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas held the fastest time (1m41.274s) earlier in the session. However, a red flag stoppage after Aussie Daniel Ricciardo tagged the wall at Turn 6 brought a halt to proceedings with a little over three minutes left in the session. The mistake by Ricciardo will see him start from tenth for the race.
When the session resumed it was a shootout to get pole position.
Bottas, was the first to fire, resetting the mark with a 1m41.027s. However Hamilton, who had been fastest in Q1 and Q2, trumped his team mate with a blistering 1m40.593s.
A late turn of speed for the Ferrari’s saw Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel lock out the second row relegating Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to fifth after sitting third through the majority of qualifying.
Canadian Teenager Lance Stroll out-qualified his much more experienced Williams team-mate Felipe Massa for the first time making just his second appearance in Q3.
Jolyon Palmer was forced to sit out qualifying after a fire broke out at the rear of his Renault during FP3. The issue, believed to be a fuel leak after his crash in FP2, will see the Brit start from 20th.
As for McLaren, Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso will start from the rear of the grid after incurring 35 and 40 place grid penalties for power unit component changes.
Result: Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Qualifying
Position | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m40.593s | – |
2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1m41.027s | 0.434s |
3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1m41.693s | 1.100s |
4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1m41.841s | 1.248s |
5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Renault | 1m41.879s | 1.286s |
6 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 1m42.111s | 1.518s |
7 | Esteban Ocon | Force India/Mercedes | 1m42.186s | 1.593s |
8 | Lance Stroll | Williams/Mercedes | 1m42.753s | 2.160s |
9 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 1m42.798s | 2.205s |
10 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 1m43.414s | 2.821s |
11 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso/Renault | 1m43.186s | – |
12 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas/Ferrari | 1m43.796s | – |
13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1m44.267s | – |
14 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m44.603s | – |
15 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Renault | 1m43.347s | – 3 place penalty |
16 | Romain Grosjean | Haas/Ferrari | 1m44.468s | – |
17 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m44.795s | – |
18 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Honda | 1m44.334s | 40 place penalty |
19 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren/Honda | 1m45.030s | 35 place penalty |
20 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | – | – |
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