“All I had in mind was to hit the wall as straight as possible. I don’t think there’s that much [damage] only the front wing.”

However, the Monegasque revelled in the challenge of Baku’s street circuit. “I like to be in between the walls. It’s good to be quick here in quali, but I’ve never won. Once it comes to tyres management [in the race], we are struggling. We’ve done some steps forward, but we still need to confirm it.”

George Russell qualified fourth, with Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz’s challenge was halted by the yellow flag caused by his team-mate’s shunt.

“I feel sorry, none of that was wanted,” said Leclerc. Sainz is fifth with Lewis Hamilton sixth.

Meanwhile the man joining him on the front row of the grid, Perez, said “It was a tricky session. Having a little bit more of a run on my lap would have helped me get pole. They [Ferrari] are stronger than us over one lap, hopefully we can beat them on race pace.

“It was fast and furious [the new format]. It won’t be long before they put a ring in the middle of the track to get all the drivers to have a fight!”

Here’s how the action played out.

 

SQ1

With all drivers required to use one set of new medium tyres SQ1, there wasn’t much time to take advantage of the fresh rubber, but it was Charles Leclerc who was quickest on the first runs on a 1min 43.372sec.

Max Verstappen was just 0.191sec behind, with the lead Red Bull and Ferrari drivers looking intent on having their own private qualifying session.

Pierre Gasly and Nyck de Vries, who had both crashed without setting a lap during qualifying for the grand pirx on Friday, were both slowest with their first efforts, before the former was wheeled into the pit garage with an exhaust problem.

Leclerc then stamped his authority on proceedings by going 0.468sec faster than Verstappen at 1min 42.820sec.

Hamilton, Sainz and Russell were behind in third, fourth and fifth respectively and that’s how it stayed after Logan Sargeant smashed into the wall halfway round, bringing the session to a close with 25sec left.

“The Ferrari’s were in the middle of the road,” complained the US driver after coming across both Scuderia cars prior to his off.

The Williams driver had been in ninth and set to go through to SQ2, and his crash inadvertently eliminated – from 20th to 16th – de Vries, Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

 

SQ2

As SQ2 began Aston’s intermittent DRS issues continued, with Fernando Alonso’s still refusing to open in the requisite zones.

With just ten minutes to set a quick lap, cars queued again to out as quickly as possible, with Max Verstappen initially on top with 1min 42.417sec, and Leclerc 0.4sec behind in second.