Qualifying seemed to go on for ever, with a record number of red flags, plenty of yellow ones and a few drops of rain. It finally ended with yet another pole position for Max Verstappen, his very first fastest qualifying lap at this track. It was only in the closing moments that the Red Bull driver managed to get under the 1’41”595 set by Williams’ Carlos Sainz, with a best time of 1’41”117. This was Verstappen’s sixth pole of the season, his 46th in total. Red Bull Racing’s first pole in Baku was its 109th.
Tomorrow, Carlos Sainz will line up on the front row of the grid for the 15th time in his career, six of those being pole positions. Liam Lawson was third for Racing Bulls, his best ever qualifying, in a time of 1’41”707. Alongside him will be Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) just one hundredth slower than the New Zealander. The Pirelli Pole Position Award was presented to Verstappen by Janelle Zharmenova. The content creator from Kazakhstan has over two and a half million followers on TikTok and 600 thousand on Instagram, where she shares her tips on fashion and beauty.
THE DAY ON TRACK
For the third free practice session, the track was definitely in worse condition than on Friday, because of overnight rain and, above all, because of the wind blowing a lot of dirt onto the track surface. Grip level then improved considerably over the course of the sixty minutes.
As was the case yesterday, the teams tried to save the three available sets of Medium as much as possible. In fact, Stroll was the only driver to use the C5. Six drivers – the Alpine, Haas and Racing Bulls pairs – also used the Hard along with the Soft, with the C6 being the only compound used by the remaining 13 drivers.
Temperatures were much lower in qualifying than in FP3, the track dropping by around 10 °C from 35 to 24 °C. On top of that, there was some occasional drizzle and gusts of wind which further slowed performance, to the extent that the pole time is only slightly quicker than the best time from yesterday’s FP2. Very unusually, the compound use was very evenly split between Soft and Medium in qualifying: 166 laps on the C6, 162 with the C5.
MARIO ISOLA – PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT
“A very unusual qualifying session, because of how long it lasted and in terms of tyre usage. We knew that when it came to overall performance, the difference between the C5 and C6 compounds would be very small and would vary from car to car and even from one driver to another. The drop in temperature the drivers had to contend with in qualifying, exacerbated by how long it went on for, meant the performance gap came down even further. Therefore, the choice between the two compounds was subjective. In fact, at first glance it would seem that the Soft compound was the most effective, contrary to what had appeared to be the case after yesterday.
“In terms of strategy tomorrow, the clearly fastest route is a one-stop with Medium and Hard playing the leading roles, unless of course there are any neutralisations. As for the Soft, it is unlikely to be used in the race, but it cannot be ruled out entirely, for example in the case of someone looking to do a short first stint, before running in clear air and going all the way to the chequered flag. Obviously a first stint on Medium or Hard allows for greater flexibility, since it’s not out of the question that the race could be neutralised, as we saw in qualifying and in today’s Formula 2 race. The one certainty is that it will be a very unpredictable race, especially because of a grid order like nothing we have seen so far this season.”
Dino Beganovic was unstoppable in today’s Sprint, taking his maiden FIA Formula 2 win, having started from second on the grid. His team-mate Luke Browning made it a one-two for the Hitech TGR team in Baku, while Alexander Dunne finished third for Rodin Motorsport, having started seventh.
As for how the tyres performed, it was hard to tell given the many neutralisations, with degradation making itself felt, particularly across the rear axle, at first because of overheating and then towards the end, through wear, with wind making it difficult for the drivers to keep their cars in a stable condition.
