With a brand new Sprint format for 2023, Qualifying took place on Friday to set the grid for the main Grand Prix on Sunday.
Q1
In Qualifying 1; Zhou Guanyu, Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly and Nyck de Vries were the five slowest drivers. Zhou Guanyu was unlucky to miss out on a spot in Q2 as he finished 2 hundredths of a second behind P15 (Esteban Ocon). Haas had a really tough day as Nico Hulkenberg just struggled for pace whilst Kevin Magnussen had an issue that cost him the chance of making it through to the next session. Pierre Gasly binned the car at turn 3 and this resulted in him retiring from the session and it also brought out the second red flag of the session. If you’re wondering what the first red flag was for, it was for Nyck de Vries who also went into the wall at turn 3. It’s really not going well for Nyck de Vries at Alpha Tauri so far. Charles Leclerc topped Q1 by just over a tenth of a second to Max Verstappen.
Q2
In Qualifying 2; George Russell, Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant all failed to make it into the top 10 shootout. It was a very frustrating day for George Russell as he missed out on Q3 by just 4 thousandths of a second (his teammate was P10 as well). Esteban Ocon didn’t quite have the pace to make it into Q3 with his Alpine whilst Alex Albon felt he would’ve made it into Q3 if it wasn’t for Carlos Sainz holding him up into turn 4. Valtteri Bottas just didn’t have the pace to compete for a spot in the top 10 whilst Logan Sargeant made it into Q2 for the first time (I actually think he should’ve done a bit better). Max Verstappen topped Q2 from Charles Leclerc by just over 2 tenths.
Q3
In Qualifying 3, Charles Leclerc pulled out a brilliant 1:40.203 to take his and Ferrari’s first Pole position of the season. After setting an identical lap time to Max Verstappen in the first part of Q3, Leclerc stepped up another gear to ensure that he will start from P1 for the main race on Sunday. Max Verstappen will probably be annoyed that he was only P2 whilst Checo Perez was a further tenth back. Despite really struggling for most of the session, Carlos Sainz can be happy with 4th on the grid whilst Lewis Hamilton pulled out a good lap to qualify 5th. Fernando Alonso will be slightly disappointed about only qualifying 6th whilst Lando Norris did a terrific job to qualify 7th. Yuki Tsunoda also did really well to qualify 8th whilst Lance Stroll could only manage 9th. Oscar Piastri rounded out the top 10 after setting exactly the same lap time as the Aston Martin.
Starting Grid for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and my Qualifying Grades
Charles Leclerc: 10
Max Verstappen: 9
Sergio Perez: 8
Carlos Sainz: 6
Lewis Hamilton: 7
Fernando Alonso: 6
Lando Norris: 10
Yuki Tsunoda: 9
Lance Stroll: 5
Oscar Piastri: 7
George Russell: 4
Esteban Ocon: 4
Alex Albon: 5
Valtteri Bottas: 4
Logan Sargeant: 3
Zhou Guanyu: 2
Nico Hulkenberg: 2
Kevin Magnussen: -
Pierre Gasly: 1
Nyck de Vries: 1
My Predictions for the Baku Sprint Shootout
Max Verstappen
Charles Leclerc
Sergio Perez
Carlos Sainz
Fernando Alonso
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