Russell dominates F1 qualifying in Baku after Antonelli crash

George Russell has taken a commanding pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with the biggest qualifying margin of the season after title leader Kimi Antonelli crashed out of Q1.

Antonelli’s qualifying session lasted less than 10 minutes, with the Italian thumping the wall at the apex of Turn 1 at the beginning of what would have been his second timed lap.

The impact immediately shattered his front-left suspension, and though the Italian attempted to limp back to pit lane, he was told the damage was too severe to be fixed in time to rejoin qualifying and was instructed to park the car.

His teammate, however, had no trouble capitalizing on the rapidly evolving track to stamp his authority over the session.

Mercedes was so confident that it sent Russell out on a single set of tires for Q3, uniquely fueling him for three flying laps.

His first was gentle and appeared to open the door to a shock pole for a rival team, but his subsequent two were both good enough for pole position.

His final lap, though, was breathtakingly quick. Fastest in all three sectors, he set the benchmark at an unreachable 1m42.526s to gap the field by a demoralizing 0.837s – nearly three times as large as the previous biggest pole margin of the season. It was Russell’s fifth pole of the year, and his first since June’s Austrian Grand Prix.

“It’s been a while,” he enthused. “It definitely feels good. It’s probably the biggest margin of my whole career, even including the F2 and F3 days.

“The lap felt really sweet. The car’s been feeling great this weekend. On a track like this, when you can hook it up like that, it feels really amazing. I think we’re in a great place to go for the win, but of course this is Baku and anything can happen … but whatever happens, I feel confident that we can go for the win.”

Charles Leclerc was a stunned second, admitting that he felt he had executed the session well before he saw the margin.

“I managed to do a good lap at the end, but when I see the gap to George, maybe the lap wasn’t good enough!” he said.

“I think in terms of position, that’s where we expected to be, but in terms of gap, it’s a lot more than we expected.”

Oscar Piastri qualified third for the second time in three weekends, the Australian just 0.001s slower than Leclerc in an unexpectedly strong showing for McLaren after the team struggled badly during practice.

“I think in qualifying we found a bit of pace,” he said. “But unfortunately we had no hope against George. Happy with how the weekend’s gone so far. It’s never easy around here, especially when it’s so gusty like today. Very happy to be back in the top three.”

Isack Hadjar was an impressive fourth in his comeback qualifying session, lapping 0.136s behind Piastri.

Lando Norris had been only 0.1s behind Piastri after the first laps but missed his braking marker at Turn 3, running off the road and sinking his final attempt, leaving him fifth and 1.146s off the pace ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who couldn’t string together a competitive lap in Q3 and ended up sixth and a further 0.186s adrift.

Pierre Gasly qualified seventh ahead of Max Verstappen after both drivers encountered yellow flags for Norris on their final laps, leaving them unable to improve.

Carlos Sainz delivered Williams its first Q3 appearance of the season and qualified ninth, though he will see the stewards after the session for an alleged yellow flag infringement – the Spaniard improved his time after following Verstappen and Gasly through the yellow flags late in the session.

Franco Colapinto qualified 10th to complete Alpine’s third double Q3 appearance of the season.

Oliver Bearman was knocked out of the top 10 after the checkered flag by just 0.092s.

Liam Lawson qualified 12th ahead of Alex Albon – who complained about a lack of slipstream for his final lap – Esteban Ocon and Arvid Lindblad, who lost his last lap to a spin at Turn 1 to lock in the first weekend since the Miami Grand Prix that Racing Bulls got neither driver into Q3.

The crashed-out Antonelli qualified behind them in 16th.

Neither Gabriel Bortoleto nor Nico Hulkenberg looked like a Q2 threat despite Audi’s significant upgrades this weekend, and they were eliminated 17th and 18th and more than 0.2s outside the top 16. It’s the first time this season both Audi drivers have been knocked out in Q1 and a season-worst result for Nico Hulkenberg.

Fernando Alonso followed in 19th ahead of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll, while Valtteri Bottas propped up the field in 22nd after having his quickest lap time deleted for traveling through double yellow flags.

Alonso and Stroll will shuffle to the back of the grid with engine change penalties, promoting Perez and Bottas to 19th and 20th.