What the teams said – Qualifying at the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix ...

3 hours ago

Leclerc has bagged pole here for the past three years, and despite missing plenty of Friday running, he once again found himself quickest of the lot come qualifying. It was very impressive from the Monegasque driver, who looked good throughout qualifying and didn’t put a foot wrong to beat the field by three tenths of a second. Sainz backed him up with third, perfect starting slots considering the odd-side of the grid has the grip for the start tomorrow.

Charles Leclerc, 1st, 1:41.365

"I’m satisfied with my lap today. This is a track I’ve always felt comfortable on and I’ve been happy with the feeling in the car from the start of the weekend. We barely changed anything from FP1 in terms of set-up, which is quite rare, and I knew that the confidence was there.Tomorrow will be a long race and tyre management will be key, so we will focus on that and give it our all to bring home another victory for our team."

Carlos Sainz, 3rd, 1:41.805

"It was a solid qualifying in which I was able to build up confidence as the session went on. Q1 was a bit messy but a smoother Q2 helped, ahead of the final two runs in Q3. On the last attempt I made a mistake in sector 2 and paid the price, but overall we are in a good spot to fight tomorrow with both cars.Now we'll prepare ourselves thoroughly for the race. A good start and especially tyre management are going to be key. Let's race!"

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"It was a very good session, with Charles always towards the top of the time sheets despite yesterday’s crash. I was sure nothing could affect his confidence as this is one of his favourite circuits. I am also pleased for Carlos who made a big step forward at this track: P3 is very good for him and this means we have both our cars in very strong start positions for tomorrow. Our pace in free practice has been good, even if we were only able to do the long run work with Carlos. Now we will focus on ourselves and will prepare the race in detail with the aim of performing consistently through to the end of the race. Baku is a track where it is very easy to make mistakes, from the drivers and from the teams and where overtaking is definitely possible, so we need once more to execute the race perfectly, always maintaining concentration so as to be ready for every possible scenario."

Neither Norris nor Piastri nailed their first laps in Q1, leaving them with it all to do late on. Piastri did manage to make Q2 with ease, but Norris could not after catching a yellow flag on his last flying run and having to lift. He has it all to do from the back of the grid, but McLaren can take solace from the fact the car is clearly fast – as demonstrated by Piastri. The Australian laid down a brilliant last lap, pushing the margins as close as he dared to grab second and put himself in the mix for victory tomorrow.

Norris at least benefits from Gasly's disqualification to move up one slot on the grid.

Lando Norris, 17th, 1:43.609

"It’s frustrating to be knocked out of qualifying in Q1 but there was nothing I could do. I was shown a yellow flag and slowed down, which ended my chances of getting a lap in. Until then the pace looked good, and we wouldn’t have had a problem getting into Q2. Frustrating, but now we look ahead to tomorrow and see where we can maximise the result. This isn’t the easiest track to overtake at, but opportunities often present themselves in Baku. We’ll work hard tonight and see what we can do tomorrow."

Oscar Piastri, 2nd, 1:41.686

"I’m happy to be starting P2. This track rewards commitment, and on the last lap I knew I had a lot less to lose, so I was trying to maximise the potential of the car to get the most out of it, and I think I did. I got a bit closer to the walls than I might have liked, but I’m very happy with my performance in Q3. We can be very optimistic from where we’re starting. Our pace is good – but that Ferrari is not slow either, so it should be a very exciting race. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do tomorrow."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

"It’s been a mixed qualifying for us here in Baku. On Lando’s side, he was unfortunate to not get his second lap in due to an unexpected yellow flag caused by a slow car out of Turn 16. Before that his pace looked close to that of Oscar’s, who progressed comfortably into Q2 with a P3. A frustrating result, but the Baku City Circuit often throws up opportunities throughout the race, so we will work tonight to ensure we are in a condition to maximise our result and score valuable points tomorrow.

"On Oscar’s side we were able to extract the potential pace from the car and secure a front-row start for tomorrow. It’s a very strong performance from Oscar to be P2 at this track, second only to Charles Leclerc who already has a few pole positions at this circuit. It shows the strength and maturity of Oscar, and offers us a good chance to fight for an important result tomorrow, when multiple teams can be in contention for the win."

Red Bull looked right in the mix in FP3, and again in the early stages of qualifying. Perez was right up there with his team mate, swapping fastest laps and showing form we haven’t seen since early in the season. But despite having two fresh sets of softs for Q3, they just couldn’t match the pace of the Ferraris nor Piastri. Both had a scrappy first run in Q3 but come the last laps Perez nailed his lap to grab fourth, with Verstappen slightly further back. That ended a 33-race streak of the Mexican being out-qualified by his team mate.

READ MORE: Verstappen ‘not happy with the car’ as he rues changes that 'made it worse' in Baku qualifying

Max Verstappen, 6th, 1:42.023

“We made some final changes going into qualifying, so this might have tipped things over the edge unfortunately. As soon as I went out into Q1, I felt that the car became a bit more difficult to drive, which was a shame as you want to always have the perfect set up. On a street circuit you need to be comfortable and confident to be able to attack corners and it is harder to do this when the car is a bit more unpredictable. We tried to find solutions throughout qualifying and my lap in Q2 was good but my Q3 could definitely have been better. I hit the kerb and it was the worst time it could have happened, which was a shame. There was a balance disconnect and we are working and fine tuning that so we can optimise the car ahead of tomorrow. From last week, we have improved the car and it would have been nice to have been on the front row. We will see what happens tomorrow: it is not ideal starting from P6 and the Ferraris are always quick around here, but the cars looked quite close today.”

Sergio Perez, 4th, 1:41.813

“I have mixed emotions after qualifying, I think P2 was possible, but I lost a little bit in sector two and couldn’t put my perfect lap together, I also think Ferrari were super strong today. We are on a very different strategy when it comes to downforce levels to most of the grid, we will see if that helps us tomorrow, definitely on the first stint I should be strong. From there it will be down to the amount of progress I am able to make and then, it will be head down and hopefully we are able to be strong in the race. As long as we are in the mix for the victory it should be a good weekend. I like this circuit, I have always done well here but I think it’s more that we are in a much better window than we have been for most of the season. The team is pushing in the right direction, we have a clear development direction and hopefully we can make another step for Singapore because we still need more.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal

“I don’t think we could have achieved Charles’ time today but it was a scrappy Q3. The balance of the car in Q2 seemed to be pretty good and Max was happy with this. Unfortunately, it was just not there on those last few sets of tyres so we need to look at why this was. With Checo, he had a bit of a lock up just after the first sector, which cost him 0.2 seconds, so could have been a better lap in there for him as well. However, this is a track that you can overtake at so those grid positions aren’t a disaster for us. I don’t think we have ever had a pole position here: unfortunately today we haven’t broken that record but it means we are still optimistic for tomorrow.”

Mercedes had Hamilton right in the mix on Friday, but on Saturday Russell came to the fore. He topped FP3 before out-qualifying Hamilton once again, with the seven-time world champion still cutting a totally bemused figure when it comes to explaining his lack of one-lap pace. They are in the mix with the Red Bulls, and will be hoping their race pace and tyre management is more impressive than their one-lap pace proved to be.

Lewis Hamilton, 7th, 1:42.289

"Qualifying was disappointing as we had a good day yesterday and I thought we could be in the fight for the front two rows. Unfortunately, I was struggling to get the tyres working and that is what it is all about. We will analyse why that was as a team and hopefully make improvements moving forward.

"The aim is to move forward tomorrow, and I am staying positive that we can do so. It is not always easy to progress here, but we have a slightly different tyre strategy to others which may help us. We will also have to look after the tyres as it is easy to suffer with the rears. If we can do so, then hopefully we can have a better day than we had today."

George Russell, 5th, 1:41.874

"I was pretty happy with my laps in qualifying. They all felt strong but unfortunately, we didn’t quite have the pace to fight for pole position. We topped the times in FP3, but we knew that this flattered us a little bit, having run right at the very end of the session. We thought we would be in a battle just outside of the top three. It is therefore a little frustrating to be half-a-tenth from P3 but P5 isn’t a bad place to start from.

"Ferrari are typically quick at street circuits and that proved to be the case once again today. I don’t think we will be able to race them for victory tomorrow but hopefully we are in the battle for the podium."

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

"Qualifying proved frustrating today. Ferrari have looked strong all weekend, so we knew that it was unlikely we would be fighting for pole position. We worked hard to make improvements overnight and, although we were flattered by FP3, looked to be able to battle for the second row. After our first runs in Q3 that seemed possible. Unfortunately, on our second efforts we had a slightly compromised out lap and missed out on P3 by just half-a-tenth of a second.

"George was happier throughout the session and ended up P5. Lewis struggled with tyre temperature and finished P7. It leaves us with work to do tomorrow but it is a long race, and our aim is to move forward. We haven’t got a clear idea of where we are compared to our competitors on the long run so we will see what we can do tomorrow."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

"We made some overnight changes with the aim of getting the car into a better place, not only for qualifying today but tomorrow’s race too. The outcome this weekend will ultimately be dictated by long run pace, so it was important that we continued to work on protecting the rear tyres for Sunday.

"After a disrupted Friday, George was happier with the overall balance in FP3, but Lewis felt less comfortable than he did the day before. Whilst George topped the times in that session, we knew we were unlikely to be challenging for pole position. After making it through the first two segments of qualifying, we looked like we may challenge for the second row. Unfortunately, the out laps on our second run were slower than we would have liked and that cost us some crucial tyre temperature on those final efforts. That may have cost George a couple of places and we found ourselves in the middle of a tight bunch, rather than at the front.

"Without much long run data from Friday, everyone’s relative pace is slightly unknown. We hope the changes we’ve made to the car since then will help us tomorrow and we can fight for the podium."

Aston Martin managed to get one car into Q3, which is as good as they could have expected from a very congested midfield. It was Alonso who made it, and he will be hoping for points after failing to score in Monza. Stroll starts slightly further back in P15, but he has previous at this track having secured a podium here way back in 2017. He might need some Safety Car interventions tomorrow though if he wants to climb up the order and score for the first time since Hungary.

Fernando Alonso, 8th, 1:42.369

"It was an exciting Qualifying session for us with a few surprises. The lap here in Baku is very high adrenaline and you take a huge level of risk. We just made it through in Q1 and I was a little pessimistic heading into the next session. The car felt better in Q2 and the lap was very rewarding. In the end I think we have to be quite pleased with eighth position for tomorrow and we’ll start ahead of both Williams cars who look quite fast here. We can’t be overconfident though, because we’ve struggled a bit in general over the course of the weekend. We’ll need to be quite defensive tomorrow and see if we can score some points."

Lance Stroll, 15th, 1:43.404

"That was a difficult session. We were off the pace and struggling both for grip and balance, so we’ve got more work to do to understand why that was. It’s disappointing, but we’ll see how we go in the race tomorrow. Hopefully some opportunities come our way."

Mike Krack, Team Principal

"As always in Baku, the margins were small and the track was evolving extremely quickly across the session. Being on track at the right time, and finding space, was not easy with several yellow flags in Q1, but we just managed to get both cars through to Q2. Fernando’s laps in Q2 and Q3 were his strongest of the weekend – when it mattered – and he really maximised everything to be P8 on the grid. Lance’s session was more difficult and he has not been happy with the balance of his car. We will push to make the most of tomorrow. It’s one of those races where anything can happen and we will be ready to take those opportunities."

Williams have looked quick all weekend but it remained to be seen where they might end up once everyone dialled up those engines. The answer was still the pick of the midfield, as the only team outside the top ones to get two cars into Q3. Colapinto defied his lack of experience to deliver a very solid qualifying, and Albon might have done better than P10 had he not been released late on in Q3 with the air box fan still attached to his car. He managed to stop and remove it himself, but couldn’t then make it to the line in time to start his last lap.

Alex Albon, 10th, 1:42.859

"We’ve had three Q3’s in a row now which is a positive, and getting both cars through to Q3 is good. The car is performing well and the upgrade is working. Funnily enough, I’m actually not that happy with the car this weekend but that’s a positive sign as it shows there’s even more to come and we are still good on race pace.

"With the issue with the fan in Q3, these things happen. Nobody did it on purpose and the team will review what happened, but realistically I was only going to gain one, maybe two positions if everything went perfectly and we can still fight from the top ten tomorrow."

Franco Colapinto, 9th, 1:42.530

"To achieve Q3 in only my second qualifying session in F1 is an amazing feeling for me and the team. I was not expecting to go into Q3 as I was just going session by session building up throughout. The car has been on point so far this weekend and I’ve been getting more comfortable with the car and learning a new track. I think we maximised almost every run we did today.

"We had a difficult start yesterday, but we’ve done a great job to turn it around. It was important to build my confidence up after the crash in FP1 especially at a street track. My mistake in FP1 meant I couldn’t do a long run which could hurt me tomorrow, but I think we can do our prep tonight and understand where I can improve. I’m proud of what we’re already achieving together as this is only the start with plenty of races left. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow."

Sven Smeets, Sporting Director

"The team did a great job overnight to find more performance for today because after FP3 this morning both drivers were happier with the balance of the car than yesterday. For qualifying the cloud cover disappeared and track temperature creeped up but with clean and well executed runs both drivers proceeded into Q2. We knew it was going to be harder to get into Q3 but again both drivers had great last laps and made it through.

"In Q3 we had to settle for P9 and P10 after an incident prohibited Alex to complete his final push lap and Franco made some small mistakes which prevented him from taking P8 from [Fernando] Alonso. Nevertheless, the team and the drivers can look back on a solid qualifying and both are in a good position to fight for points tomorrow."

Bearman got it all wrong into Turn 1 in final practice, clipping the barriers and ending his session early. He headed into qualifying without any proper quick laps under his belt but you couldn’t tell from the way he drove. The youngster was full of confidence in making Q2 and was a whisker away from Q3 as well. In the end he had to settle for out-qualifying his vastly more experienced team mate.

Nico Hulkenberg, 14th, 1:43.191

“I think some other teams found a bit more pace out there than us, and it’s all about very fine margins once again in the midfield. On my side, I didn’t find enough lap time on that last run in Q2, I was struggling a bit in sector two to find the love and the harmony. We aimed for a better position but in Q2 we didn’t find enough improvement on the second set of new tyres, hence we are where we are.”

Oliver Bearman, 11th, 1:42.968

“It was a tough session. I was firstly lucky to get into Q2 because there was a double yellow out there which I lost a lot of time with, but I managed to scrape through. We were really on the limit to get into Q3 if it wasn’t for the mistake I made in the castle section. I’m quite disappointed in myself, not necessarily for qualifying but for FP3 where I lost a lot of laps and experience. I felt really comfortable in the car yesterday on my high-fuel run, so I have high hopes for tomorrow.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“I certainly have mixed feelings. Ollie’s recovery from FP3 was really good, and in Q1 on his second run he came across a yellow flag, so it was just enough to get through. What’s impressive is how he was able to reset after FP3 ahead of Q1, and also in-between Q1 and Q2, to then deliver like that. He’s kicking himself because he lost about three tenths on his second run in Q2, but after his FP3 session, to deliver P11 and getting so close to getting into Q3, he did such a good job. With Nico, he did a good job in Q1, but in Q2 he was struggling a bit because he doesn’t get on well with this track in terms of flow etc. I think he has a decent starting position, so tomorrow I’d like to think we can take the fight to Williams for a top 10 spot.”

Not to be for Tsunoda, despite some serious pushing from his race engineer to lay it all on the line. He’d never previously qualified outside of the top eight here, but couldn’t make Q3 this time around. Nor could Ricciardo, as he fell at an even earlier stage. That RB looked the pick of the midfield earlier this season, but has dropped off the pace of late and both drivers look to be struggling here this weekend.

Daniel Ricciardo, 16th, 1:43.547

"Qualifying was close today. I went in a bit deep at turn four which compromised my exit, so there was some time left on the table there. Otherwise, the lap didn’t feel too bad, and I was surprised we were out in Q1. It was very tight over one lap between everyone, which is unusual for such a long lap at a street circuit. Any Q1 exit is frustrating, but it’s such small margins around here. However, it’s possible to overtake at this circuit. Even seeing the F2 race today, there were opportunities, so that brings us optimism. We’ll try to pick it up for tomorrow, it’s a race where you can make something happen."

Yuki Tsunoda, 12th, 1:43.035

"It’s frustrating to drop out at Q2. It’s not what we expected in terms of performance. We were lacking pace and it was quite difficult to drive, but we gave it our all. Tyre degradation seems trickier than usual compared to previous years, so it seems like tyre management will be key tomorrow. The new floor is definitely working here compared to Monza, it feels completely different; the team have done a great job in analysing the data. Other tracks might be a different story, but the next few tracks will be similar to this one, so I’m excited for that. We’ll keep digging into the performance, but we’ll keep calm and do what we can do tomorrow."

Jody Egginton, Technical Director

"The tightness of the mid field battle and the importance of achieving clean laps around this technically challenging circuit has, again, been well demonstrated in qualifying today. Yuki managed to extract a good level of performance from the car, but was not quite able to make the cut for Q3 today. Daniel struggled a bit more. Looking at the bigger picture, further running of the floor introduced in Monza has confirmed its performance is in line with expectations, which provides us with confidence. However, the importance of the next planned aero updates is undiminished, as we are in a very close mid field fight where small improvements can bring good rewards. We expect a tight battle and the Safety Car coming into play is not unheard of here, so we will be ready to make the correct calls to not lose out."

Ocon brought out the red flags in FP3 when he stopped out on track with a lack of power. Coupled with his PU change yesterday, it left the Frenchman massively short of laps heading into qualifying, and that showed as he propped up the field. Gasly seemed to save the team’s blushes by making Q2, but could go no further at a track that doesn’t seem to play to Alpine’s strengths. He originally bagged P13, but it then emerged he was being investigated for a fuel mass flow infringement, which resulted in him being disqualified from qualifying.

READ MORE: Gasly disqualified from qualifying at Azerbaijan Grand Prix over fuel flow breach

Esteban Ocon, 20th, 1:44.504

“It’s not been a good weekend so far on my side. We had issues in Free Practice 1 and then in Free Practice 3 earlier today, which has really impacted our time on track. As a result, we’ve not had our usual preparation going into Qualifying so we entered it on the back foot. We could not get the car in the right window on set-up so I really had to push as much as I could to find some lap-time. On my last run we were improving a little – probably not enough to progress – and I tapped the wall. We will try to make the most of every opportunity tomorrow as it’s usually eventful at this track.”

Pierre Gasly, DSQ, 1:43.179

“I’m pretty satisfied with the outcome of today’s Qualifying performance. It is obviously a pity that a minor fuel flow infringement means we are disqualified from the session. In any case, we expected to find it tough to reach Q2 as the car has been tricky all weekend, which has shown on the timesheets throughout Practice. I was very pleased with my laps in Qualifying and, even if the result doesn’t look spectacular, it was one of our most complete sessions of the season. The car has been sliding a lot, generally lacking rear grip, and we managed to improve that with some changes. We will have to stay calm in the race tomorrow and aim to be in the mix at the end. It’s usually a tough one here for racing and a lot can happen so we will give it our all from the back.”

Oliver Oakes, Team Principal

“Today was initially looking like a more promising day after the difficulties we faced during practice on Friday, where we struggled. Despite a great effort from Pierre to progress to the second part of Qualifying, he was later disqualified for exceeding the fuel mass flow on his final run in Q2, which is disappointing given the speed he showed. I have to say sorry to Esteban from the team, who entered the session on the back foot with his preparations severely hampered due to reliability issues in two of the three practice sessions. Looking ahead to the race tomorrow, the car seemed to improve each session and the pace looked more promising over the long runs. It’ll be a tough race from where we’re starting tomorrow. This track has shown in the past that opportunities can quickly present themselves to move up the order and we need to be there to capitalise on it.”

Zhou picked up some grid penalties after the team opted to change his Control Electronics and Energy Store for this weekend, meaning he has a back of the grid start. As such, his sole purpose in qualifying was to help his team mate with a tow. But that isn’t easy to orchestrate here, with the tow ideally coming at the end of the lap not the start. In the end, both drivers exited in Q1.

Valtteri Bottas, 18th, 1:43.618

“It’s been another rather difficult qualifying session. We tried everything we could, even with teamwork: I got a nice tow from Zhou, which shows that he’s a real team player, but unfortunately it still wasn’t enough to get into Q2. We weren’t that far off from making the cut, although the lap itself wasn't quite perfect because of Turn Five. Apart from that, however, it was a clean one, and I think we also got it right with timing and strategy. Ultimately, we just weren't fast enough to make it to Q2 today. As always, though, tomorrow is a new day, and anything can happen in Baku.”

Zhou Guanyu, 19th, 1:44.246

“We knew I would be facing a penalty for Sunday, forcing me to start from the back of the grid, so we aimed to optimise the team’s overall result. My goal was to give Valtteri a slipstream to help him get as close as possible to Q2, which we practiced in FP3. However, this meant sacrificing my own performance, as my best lap was set on tyres that were two and a half laps old. Still, we need to improve our overall performance and move further forward to be in the mix. Looking ahead to tomorrow’s race from our current grid position – and knowing how unpredictable things can be in Baku – there may be opportunities to progress and gain some positions. We’ll need to be at our best to capitalise on them.”

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative

“Firstly, we would like to express our gratitude to Zhou. He has made concessions in both free practice and qualifying, sacrificing his sessions to provide the tow to Valtteri, which could have been crucial in allowing us to get at least one car into Q2. Of course, this will not change his own starting position for tomorrow’s race, as we elected to make changes to some power unit components on his car. We knew from this morning that he would be starting from the back of the grid because of this. However, this demonstrates our collective efforts to improve performance and take that necessary step forward. Regrettably, we were narrowly unable to advance Valtteri into Q2. The gap was truly small, but we do not lose hope. The starting positions are once again quite challenging for us, but we have observed that this circuit offers opportunities at every corner. Therefore, we must be prepared to react with our pit strategy. More than ever, we will have to come together as a team to deliver a strong performance, improving our starting position, and being ready to seize any opportunities that may arise during the race.”

Mario Isola, Motorsport Director

“It really seems as though Leclerc has a special feeling for this track as it’s not often you see a driver take four consecutive poles at the same Grand Prix! Once again today we saw the track get quicker and quicker the more laps the cars did, but we are still a long way off, not just the time expected from the teams’ simulations of 1’39”4, but also far from last year’s pole (1’40”203), which shows there is still room for more track evolution during the race.

“In terms of strategy, on paper, the one-stop is definitely the quickest option at this track, with medium and hard the most suitable for the 51-lap race. A two-stop only becomes credible if there is a Safety Car in the second half of the race and that’s probably why many drivers have held back two sets of C3 for tomorrow afternoon. Theoretically, based on an initial look at the data, the first stop should come between laps 13 and 20 for those who opt to start on the medium, while those who leave the grid on hards should pit between laps 32 and 38. Clearly, a neutralisation could lead to a run of pit stops, as we saw last year for example. One factor to consider will be graining, given that the track is still very dirty.”