Hamilton and Räikkönen miss out as Vettel stays clinical to clinch pole in Baku

Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the Azerbaijan Formula 1 Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas will start third, next to Daniel Ricciardo.

Vettel’s time of 1min 41.498sec  was 0.179sec faster than Hamilton’s final flying effort, with the top five separated by 0.496sec. Vettel will start on supersoft tyres, as will the Mercedes pair.

Räikkonen, on the other hand, locked up in Q2 and ruined his only set of supersofts for the weekend.

Daniel Ricciardo struggled in Q2 (10^th) but made it to Q3 and qualified fourth, beating his team-mate Max Verstappen by 0.083sec.

Räikkonen set the fastest time in Q1 and Q2, but a mistake in Q3 set him back to sixth. His second effort was set for pole, but another error at the final corner meant that he stayed sixth, just ahead of Force India’s Esteban Ocon.

Sergio Pérez qualified eighth, 0.024sec behind his team-mate while the Renault pairing rounded out the top 10, Carlos Sainz Jr a couple of tenths slower than his team-mate. However, Hülkenberg has a five-place grid penalty having taken a new gearbox and will provisionally start 14^th, giving Lance Stroll a top 10 start.

Ricciardo made it into Q3 by a tenth of a second, and as a result neither Williams driver made it past Q2 with Stroll 11^th and Sergey Sirotkin 12^th. They were eliminated alongside Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen.

Both Toro Rossos were eliminated in Q1, with Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly avoiding an ugly accident before Gasly took quick evasive action. Hartley was, fortunately, left with nothing more than a rear puncture.

Marcus Ericsson also missed Q2, though his team-mate Leclerc managed to finish 11^th fastest in Q1.

Stoffel Vandoorne, in 16^th, found himself in the drop zone after Lance Stroll’s last-ditch flying effort at the end of Q1.

Romain Grosjean’s qualifying session ended early with a gearbox issue at the beginning of Q1, and he will bring up the rear on Sunday.

---

Azerbaijan Formula 1 Grand Prix qualifying results

1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1min 41.498sec
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1min 41.677sec	+0.179sec
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1min 41.837sec	+0.339sec
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1min 41.911sec	+0.413sec
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1min 41.944sec	+0.496sec
6	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1min 42.490sec	+0.992sec
7	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1min 42.523sec	+1.025sec
8	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1min 42.547sec	+1.049sec
9	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1min 43.066sec	+1.568sec
10	Carlos Sainz Jr	Renault	1min 43.351sec	+1.853sec
11	Lance Stroll	Williams	1min 43.482sec
12	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1min 43.886sec
13	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1min 44.019sec
14	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1min 44.074sec
15	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1min 44.759sec
16	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1min 44.489sec
17	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1min 44.496sec
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1min 45.541sec
19	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1min 57.354sec
20	Romain Grosjean	Haas

For full analysis of qualifying, sign up for the Mark Hughes newsletter to receive the in-depth Grand Prix report on Monday following the Grand Prix.