Qualifying Highlights | 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Thanks for the boys to get the car out. Always nice to hear the driver thank those who... It would have been a flurry of activity down there in the French team's garage. He's in the wall! He's in the wall! Nick de Vries was going to be the last driver to push it over the line and he finds the barriers and the Dutch driver brings out the red flag. Let's have a look then for Nick. End of a long straight into Turn 3. It's a left-hander and yeah, he's way too quick but he had to be going down the escape road, go basically straight on. Instead, he was caught between trying to make the corner and diving out and he just had way too much speed. Brakes late and then he was never going to make that. Oh my God. George Russell hoping that he can find something. We've already got a yellow flag in Sector 1 once again and we've got Pierre Gasly trailing down the barriers. And after all of the effort to repair the car, Gasly without the fear and he's found himself into the barriers to bring out another red flag. I'm sorry. I locked the front. Copy that, mate. Deep into the corner once again, further on than de Vries but the corner ripped off at the back and that will be a moment of dejection for a driver that has gone so well around this circuit in the past. OK, Kev, there's something wrong with the car. Slow down and come in. Slow down and box. It feels OK. No, we can't risk it, Kev. We can't risk it. There's only two more spots to go out in Q1. They're dropping like flies here. Magnussen is going to come back into the pits we expect and will be 18th. Bottas taking a step forward in the middle part of the lap doesn't apply to Joe Guan Yu at the moment. Sainz is 8th. It's not where he'd want to be but it is a step forward at the right time. Hülkenberg finds a lap that takes him to 14th position. That will leave him vulnerable. Can Bottas, a former winner of this Grand Prix, find his way through into the second part of qualifying? The Finnish driver cuts the beam. The Finnish driver demotes Piastri who's still pushing out there. Joe Guan Yu gets to 15th. Can Piastri respond? He can up to 11th. Tough day for Haas then. And Ocon gets the Alpine down on mileage team but they've got at least one driver into Q2 just. Let's focus now on the drop zone. Alexander Albon improved his time. Can Esteban Ocon get near it? He can! And he goes ahead two hundredths faster than Alex Albon's effort. Still, Tsunoda's improving. Piastri's even quicker than both of them in the first sector and the middle sector as well. Piastri could be a man on the move. We know that McLaren's good and Norris proves it jumping up to 5th. Verstappen across the line at the front end of the field but there is a huge tussle going on for 10th place in this order and a place in Q3. Over the line we go. We'll rattle off the times across the board. Bottas can't find any pace. What about Piastri? Piastri can to go up to 8th position and to mode not only Ocon but Russell as well. Russell who's had an ordinary middle sector, not an improvement for him. And the chequered flag is out. Over the line comes Carlos Sainz to improve up to 4th position but George Russell is eliminated. There's the moment over the kerb. The momentum out of that corner can cost you and it did for Russell. The British driver outqualified for the first time this season by his teammate Lewis Hamilton by four thousandths of a second. Verstappen chasing pole position 23 today to go ahead of the great Fernando Alonso. It's Perez who's going to put the benchmark on the board of a 140.5. What can his teammate do by way of response? He'll go ahead by a tenth of a second but we're waiting for the Scarlet Ferrari. First of all over the line it's Carlos Sainz who's half a second away but what can Charles Leclerc do? Chasing a third consecutive pole position at this circuit. Charles Leclerc across the line. Charles Leclerc to the front row and it's exactly the same time as Max Verstappen. Extraordinary! Verstappen ahead because he set the time first but it's a 140.445. Identical times! Amazing! Max Verstappen has never started this Grand Prix from the front row. He's won it, he won it last year but at the moment he's got the tiniest possible margin to Charles Leclerc who's one tenth of a second up on the benchmark set by Verstappen as Leclerc looks to try and improve and take his 19th career pole on this lap. Perez is quicker in the first sector. The first sector did belong to Leclerc before but Perez has found even more time and Verstappen is finding time as well but he's the slowest of the three in the first sector. Cheers as Leclerc comes through Turn 12. This is where he can win or lose it through these tight corners and then you've got the long drag to the line but first of all we'll get a sector from Charles Leclerc as he comes out of Turn 15 here over the crest. See what he's doing in the middle sector right up to the wall. He's looking quick. This is the driver that's made his worst ever start to a season in Ferrari colours. Just six points to his name but he's in the hunt for pole position here with the fastest middle sector so far. Leclerc has set a benchmark way ahead of what Perez has managed to do in the middle part of the lap. It's on for Charles Leclerc if he can deliver it all. He comes across the line. The DRS is open. The Monagas driver looking for another pole position in Baku and he takes it for the moment. Three in a row on the board but can the Bulls take it away? Sainz cuts the beam. He will not improve. Can Perez do anything about it? Verstappen, no personal best in the middle part of the lap. Perez, fastest of anyone in the final sector but it's only third. And now, can Max Verstappen take it away? He can't! He can't take it away! And Charles Leclerc has three poles in a row around Baku City Circuit. Extraordinary stuff. Alonso up to P6. So P1. Come on! Yes! Feels good. What a job! What a job to get ahead of the Red Bulls for the first time and actually nearly by two tenths of a second in the end. Fantastic stuff from Leclerc. It's the third pole in a row in Azerbaijan for Charles Leclerc. Our first ever trip to the front row here for Max Verstappen.