{"id":157485,"date":"2025-09-20T22:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T22:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/157485\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T22:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T22:22:12","slug":"max-verstappen-roars-to-stunning-azerbaijan-gp-pole-after-six-qualifying-red-flags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/157485\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen roars to stunning Azerbaijan GP pole after SIX qualifying red flags"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on pole for the first time as McLaren imploded in Q3 in a record-breaking session.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After four red flags through Q1 and Q2, both Charles Leclerc and championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed in Q3, leaving Carlos Sainz of Williams on provisional pole with just 3:41 left on the clock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Verstappen, using a set of new soft tyres, roared to a 1:41.117 time to snatch pole position from Sainz, securing Williams’ best qualifying result since George Russell in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Liam Lawson secured a career-best third for Racing Bulls, with Lando Norris languishing seventh in a major break for Piastri after his Q3 crash.<\/p>\n

Norris himself suffered a wall-strike on his final lap to leave him seventh, only two places ahead of the crashed Piastri on a weekend McLaren can win the constructors’ championship.<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton was 12th for Ferrari.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tQ3<\/p>\n

In Q3, Sainz initially set a 1:41.595 on mediums to go fastest as one of the first laps, but Leclerc crashed at Turn 15 moments later, bringing out the red flags with 7:07 remaining.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, during this delay, rain began to fall, with the session resuming before Piastri crashed at Turn 3.<\/p>\n

Getting too deep on the brakes, he slammed into the wall, leaving a door open for Norris once the session resumed with 3:41 on the clock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Norris could only go third at the time, dropping to seventh, only two places ahead as Verstappen roared to a fifth pole of the season.<\/p>\n

His time was 1:41.117, with Sainz settling in for Williams as Lawson claimed the best qualifying result for a New Zealander since Chris Amon’s third at the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is Verstappen’s first pole in Baku, the 26th different circuit he has set a pole position at.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kimi Antonelli was fourth for Mercedes, ahead of George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda, with Isack Hadjar the lowest-placed Red Bull-backed driver in eighth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tHamilton falls in Q2 again<\/p>\n

The big shock of Q2 was the elimination of Lewis Hamilton in 12th place after a disastrous Q2 for Ferrari.<\/p>\n

Firstly, Leclerc went out on the mediums, but a mistake at Turn 1 on his first lap brought out yellow flags, also disrupting Hamilton behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was forced to abort the effort, and as the clock ticked down to zero, found himself P10 in the times, although Leclerc was yet to set a time.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Hamilton found some time, but stayed 10th in the standings until knocked out by Alonso and then Leclerc.<\/p>\n

It is the fifth time in 17 races this season that Hamilton has fallen in Q2.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was joined in falling by Alonso in 11th, Gabriel Bortoleto in 13th and the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll in 14th.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other eliminee was Oliver Bearman of Haas, who triggered the fourth red flag of the qualifying session early on after tapping the wall exiting Turn 2 on his first lap.<\/p>\n

Up front, the segment was topped by Verstappen from Norris and Piastri.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\" \u00a9<\/p>\n

\t\u00a9 XPBimages<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAlpine misery compounded in Q1<\/p>\n

In a Q1 session, 35 minutes with three red flags, it was Alpine duo Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto who brought the session to an early end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With both in the drop-zone, Gasly initially ran wide at Turn 4, but moments later, Colapinto came through Turn 4 and got a tank-slapper into the concrete wall, destroying his car.<\/p>\n

The duo were eliminated in 16th for Colapinto and 19th for Gasly on a weekend the team expected to struggle.<\/p>\n

They were joined in Q1 elimination by Nico Hulkenberg, who brought out the second red flag with 6:36 remaining for another Turn 4 incident, and Esteban Ocon in 18th.<\/p>\n

Alex Albon triggered the first red flag with 11:33 left on the clock, after clipping the inside wall at Turn 1, leaving him 20th once everyone completed fast laps.<\/p>\n

Up front, Norris topped the segment from Verstappen and Leclerc, with the top teams following a mixture of soft and medium tyre strategies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on pole for the first time as McLaren imploded in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-157485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}