Race Weekend Details
- Race Start Time: Saturday, 26 September at 12:00 BST
- Coverage: Live commentary on Radio 5 Live starting at 11:00; text updates available on the official website and app
- Grid: Positions for the top 10 finishers
George Russell secured a commanding pole position for Mercedes at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, finishing 0.837 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The result marks Russell’s first pole since the Austrian Grand Prix in late June and highlights the team’s exceptional pace at the Baku circuit. Reflecting on the dominant performance, Russell noted it was likely the largest margin of his career, adding that the car felt balanced and responsive throughout the weekend. On a weekend in which Antonelli’s running has been compromised by reliability problems that meant he missed out on half the possible running on Thursday, Russell absolutely delivered on Mercedes’ dominant position on this unique track. That’s probably the biggest margin I’ve had in my whole career,” Russell said. “The lap felt really sweet and the car has been feeling great all weekend. It appears to have produced a big step forwards, although the caveat is that Baku is a track that suits the characteristics of the Williams car and does not expose its weaknesses, along with some additional developments.
While Russell flourished, his teammate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli experienced a difficult session. Antonelli, who currently leads the standings by 81 points, was eliminated during the first qualifying session after striking the inside wall at Turn One. The impact caused significant suspension damage. Despite Antonelli’s plea to continue, his race engineer Peter Bonnington instructed him to stop, noting the damage to the upright and track rod was too severe for emergency repairs. And the left front wheel clouted the inside wall, breaking the suspension, he turned into the first corner too early.
Antonelli’s struggle followed a disjointed Friday, where hydraulic issues sidelined him during practice. This qualifying error marks his first major incident since a crash in Australia earlier this season. Leclerc admitted surprise at the scale of the performance gap, noting that while he anticipated Mercedes would be strong, he did not expect such a significant deficit. Saying that the position was what he expected but the gap most definitely was not, leclerc was somewhat taken aback by Mercedes’ superiority.
The session also featured a breakthrough for Williams, with Carlos Sainz securing their first top-10 qualifying appearance of the year. The team’s recent upgrades, including a new chassis that finally meets the minimum weight requirements, have significantly improved their competitiveness. Teammate Alex Albon struggled to match this pace, citing issues with straight-line speed and a lack of a tow, and will start 13th. There was finally some good news for Williams, for whom Carlos Sainz achieved the team’s first top 10 qualifying performance of the year, at the bottom of the top 10. And was “anyway struggling with straight-line speed all session”, and was 13th, just under 0.4secs behind the Spaniard, team-mate Alex Albon did not manage to secure a tow in the second part of qualifying.
Tactical errors impacted the Red Bull and McLaren drivers as well. Max Verstappen, who sought a slipstream from Lando Norris on his final lap, lost his chance at the front row after Norris went off-track. Although Verstappen expressed confidence that he could have challenged for the front row, he conceded that beating Russell’s time was beyond reach. Lewis Hamilton, competing without a tow, finished sixth, trailing the top group. With a tow or slipstream worth as much as 0.5 seconds, Verstappen was following Norris on their final laps when the Briton made a mistake and went off track.
Starting Grid: Top 10
- George Russell (Mercedes)
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
- Isack Hadjar (Red Bull)
- Lando Norris (McLaren)
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Carlos Sainz (Williams)
- Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
