Qualifying report
Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP
Azerbaijan GP: Vettel beats Mercedes duo to pole
Sebastian Vettel claimed his third consecutive Formula 1 pole position in qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Edd Straw
Edited: Apr 28, 2018, 5:16 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Ferrari driver's first run in the Q3 top 10 shootout was good enough to secure pole position by 0.179s from Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton after a lock-up spoiled his second attempt.
But in the dying seconds of the session, it seemed the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen was set for pole position having set the fastest times of all in the first two sectors.
He threw away that time by being too aggressive on the throttle out of the Turn 16 left-hander, which led to him losing enough time that he did not improve on his first run time.
This put Raikkonen down in sixth place, behind Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas and the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
Five of the top six will start on the supersoft Pirellis, having used them to set their times in Q2, the exception being Raikkonen who locked up on his flying lap and set his time on his second run using ultrasofts.
Ricciardo appeared to benefit from a tow from Raikkonen to pip his teammate by less than a tenth of a second.
Esteban Ocon performed strongly throughout qualifying to end up as best of the rest in seventh, a second off the pace, and just ahead of Force India teammate Sergio Perez.
Nico Hulkenberg was ninth fastest, although has to serve a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change and will hand the position to Renault teammate Carlos Sainz.
Lance Stroll came close to knocking Ricciardo out in Q2 with his late lap, which was just 0.103s slower than the Red Bull driver's supersoft pace and good enough for 11th.
That put him three tenths clear of Williams teammate Sergey Sirotkin, who survived an investigation into impeding Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson in Q1 without any action being taken.
Fernando Alonso was 13th for McLaren, having been shuffled down from ninth place after the first runs despite improving on his second set of ultrasofts.
Sauber's Charles Leclerc was 14th, while Haas driver Kevin Magnussen was just under seven tenths down in 15th place after lapping over a second slower than he had in Q1.
Stoffel Vandoorne was the quickest driver to be eliminated in Q1 thanks to Stroll's late lap of 1m44.359s, which was 0.130s quicker than the McLaren driver.
That also relegated Pierre Gasly to 17th after the Frenchman's second run was ruined by an incident with Toro Rosso teammate Brendon Hartley.
Hartley was circulating slowly with a puncture at Turn 14 when Gasly happened upon him at the fast left-hand kink while on a lap that looked quick enough to get him into Q2.
Gasly just managed to swerve around the right side of Hartley and narrowly avoid contact, but he mounted the outside kerb and ended up in the Turn 15 escape road before returning to the pits – labelling what happened "unacceptable" over the radio.
"I was trying to get out of the way of Gasly but it was too late," said Hartley over the radio. "I feel pretty stupid about Gasly."
Hartley had to abandon his quick lap from the first run, and did not have time to have another run after his puncture so ended up down in 19th behind Ericsson having not set a serious lap time.
Haas driver Romain Grosjean was 20th having not set a time thanks to stopping with a gearbox problem early in Q1.
ClaDriverChassisEngineTimeGap 1 
Sebastian Vettel Ferrari Ferrari 1'41.498 2 
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Mercedes 1'41.677 0.179 3 
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes Mercedes 1'41.837 0.339 4 
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull TAG 1'41.911 0.413 5 
Max Verstappen Red Bull TAG 1'41.994 0.496 6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari Ferrari 1'42.490 0.992 7 
Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 1'42.523 1.025 8 
Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1'42.547 1.049 9 Nico Hulkenberg Renault Renault 1'43.066 1.568 10 
Carlos Sainz Renault Renault 1'43.351 1.853 11 
Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 1'43.585 2.087 12 
Sergey Sirotkin Williams Mercedes 1'43.886 2.388 13 Fernando Alonso McLaren Renault 1'44.019 2.521 14 
Charles Leclerc Sauber Ferrari 1'44.074 2.576 15 
Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1'44.759 3.261 16 
Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Renault 1'44.489 2.991 17 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso Honda 1'44.496 2.998 18 
Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 1'45.541 4.043 19 
Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso Honda 1'57.354 15.856 20 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article F1 bosses "fooled" by teams pushing for fuel increase
Next article Gasly: Hartley near miss "scariest moment of my career"
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Edd Straw
How the Senna myth has been transformed
Formula 1
Formula 1
How the Senna myth has been transformed
Archive: When the French GP almost produced F1's greatest shock
Formula 1
Formula 1
Archive: When the French GP almost produced F1's greatest shock
The lost F1 team that launched Adrian Newey
Formula 1
Formula 1
The lost F1 team that launched Adrian Newey
Latest news
Dale Jr. explains why he doesn't use 'Earnhardt' in his signature
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 2 min
Dale Jr. explains why he doesn't use 'Earnhardt' in his signature
NASCAR to allow brake rotor and pad changes after Phoenix qualifying
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
29 min
NASCAR to allow brake rotor and pad changes after Phoenix qualifying
Why Christian Horner banned Mercedes' name as Red Bull built its own F1 engine
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
45 min
Why Christian Horner banned Mercedes' name as Red Bull built its own F1 engine
Laurent Mekies extends contract as Red Bull's F1 team boss
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
2 h
Laurent Mekies extends contract as Red Bull's F1 team boss
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe