The Mexican Sergio Pérez will start second and the Dutch Verstappen, leader of the World Cup, starts third
the monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who will start first this Sunday at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the fourth of the Formula One World Championship, which takes place on the urban circuit of Baku, the capital of the country, will also do so this Saturday in the sprint; in which the mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) I will start second and the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) they will do so from fourth and ninth place, respectively.
Leclerc, who ended up crashing into the wall -without physical or qualifying consequences- in his last attempt, was the best in the reduced qualification (‘sprint shoot-out’) for the first of the six sprints that will take place this year; by covering the 6,003 meters of the track in the Azerbaijani capital in one minute, 41 seconds and 697 thousandths, 179 less than ‘Czech’.
the dutch max verstappen (Red Bull), leader of the World Cup -with fifteen points ahead of ‘Czech’, who is second- and who aspires to achieve a third title in a row, was 443 thousandths behind Leclerc and will start third, next to Sainz, from the second row.
Sainz, who was almost six tenths behind his teammate, will start fifth, from the third row, next to the other Mercedes, that of the English seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton; sixth in the ‘mini-timed’ this Saturday.
Alonso, third in the World Cup -24 points behind Verstappen-, and who was one second and seven tenths behind the Monegasque, will start eighth in the sprint.
The Asturian double world champion, who finished on the podium in his first three races with Aston Martin -in Barin, Saudi Arabia and Australia– and he already has 101 ‘drawers’ in F1, he was three and a half seconds behind Leclerc’s time and will start from eighth place, one place ahead of his new partner, the Canadian Lance Stroll; who, like him, again hinted at problems with the DRS of his car.
The new sprint format, which will be used again in Austria, Belgium, Qatar, United States and Brazil, does not affect Sunday’s race at all, whose starting grid was decided in qualifying on Friday. S award points to the first eight: the first to add eight; the second, seven; the third, six; and so on, until the eighth, which will add one to his locker in the World Cup.
The sprint is scheduled for a third of the route on Sunday: that is, 17 laps for a little over one hundred kilometers. And it will start at half past five in the afternoon (half past three in Spanish peninsular time. 1:30 p.m. GMT).
The reduced timed was played in the same way as the ‘classic’, with three elimination rounds, but lasting twelve, ten and eight minutes; instead of 18, fifteen and twelve. In Q1 -which ended half a minute early, with a red flag, due to the accident, without major consequences, of the American logan sergeant (Williams) and in Q2 they all rolled, as required, with medium tyres.
In Q3 everyone did it, obligatorily, with the soft ones.
Leclerc, despite hitting the Baku wall – the fourth longest circuit on the calendar – dominated the ‘sprint shoot-out’ by setting the best time in Q3. The pilot of the principality of the Blue Coast he had been the fastest in Q1, before exchanging places with Verstappen in the second round – which dominated the new idol of the Netherlands.
In the decisive act, Sainz’s teammate was the best, ahead of ‘Checo’, with a victory and another three podiums, the most successful driver in the six editions in which, to date, Baku has hosted a Grand Prix.
Alonso will start, in search of points, from eighth place, in the fourth row; in which the Thai will accompany him Alexander Albon (Williams).
Stroll will start ninth, from the fifth row, next to the English Lando Norris (McLaren).
According to the criteria of
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