Race day has arrived in Baku, where the FORMULA 1 AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX 2022 gets under way at 3pm local time on the Baku City Circuit. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc starts from pole and will be chasing his first win in the Azerbaijani capital.
Qualifying round-up
Saturday’s qualifying started a little late after an incident in the Formula 2 sprint race. Q1 was halted by the first red flag of the weekend when Lance Stroll crashed his Aston Martin at the tricky Turn 2. The fight for the top spots carried on through Q2 and Q3, and Leclerc produced the decisive lap to take pole ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, who qualified second and third.
Leclerc is bidding to become the sixth different winner in six years in Baku, while Perez could become the first driver to win twice in Azerbaijan, and in back-to-back years.
What the top three said
“It feels good, this one. Obviously, all pole positions feels good, but this one I probably did not expect it, because I thought Red Bull were stronger, especially in Q1 and Q2, I really struggled to see that we were faster, but then in the last lap, everything came together and I managed to do a good lap, so extremely happy…”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
“I am still on the front row and it is a long race ahead where anything can happen, especially here. We have both cars in between the Ferraris which is a good thing. Tomorrow we are going to work as a Team to try and get Ferrari and it would be ideal to get a one-two – we are going to push them hard.”
Sergio Perez, Red Bull
“Past races in Baku have shown that a lot of things can happen, we just need to stay calm and focus on having a good race tomorrow.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull
Support races and fans
Formula 2 holds its feature race in the morning, after Frederik Vesti won Saturday’s eventful sprint race ahead of Jehan Daruvala. Saturday also saw the return of the autograph sessions to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the first time since 2019, with fans queuing in the sun to meet the drivers.