Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row on Saturday as McLaren’s title contender Lando Norris suffered a qualifying nightmare which will see him start Sunday’s race from 17th.
Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri joined Leclerc on the front row with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez together on the second row.
Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen, 62 points ahead of Norris with eight rounds remaining, qualified sixth, behind Mercedes’ George Russell.
Norris missed out on Q2 after a yellow flag warning meant he had to slow on his final attempt to get out of the bottom five.
The Legend of Sparrow Robertson: The last sportswriter in Nazi Paris
‘Helping him in his darkest moment was also helping me’: David Eccles and Tadhg Kennelly on an act of friendship that spawned a movement
Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’
Two-time Olympic champion Kellie Harrington named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year 2024
“Everyone did their second laps and I didn’t,” Norris told Sky Sports television. “It was unlucky, that’s all. I had to lift.
“There's a long race ahead, we have some good tyres in the bank, I'm still hopeful we can get a good result. I think the car is quick. Bit frustrating, but nothing I can do.”
It was the 24-year-old′s first elimination at the first hurdle since Las Vegas last November when he started 16th and then retired in the race.
The run-up to the race weekend has been dominated by talk of potential team orders at McLaren and Norris being helped by Australian team-mate Piastri.
Lewis Hamilton qualified his silver arrow in seventh, followed by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and the two Williams of France Colapinto and Alex Albon in ninth and 10th respectively.
Oliver Bearman out-qualified his Haas team-mate Nico Hulkenberg to put himself 11th, with the latter back in 14th ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in 15th. RB’s Yuki Tsunoda will line up in 12th, while his former team-mate Alpine’s Pierre Gasly is in 13th.
Daniel Ricciardo of RB will start from 16th, ahead of Norris and the Sauber duo of Baltteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon rounding out the 20 drivers.
