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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Matt Verri

F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying LIVE! Leclerc takes pole - Updates and latest news from Baku

F1 Azerbaijan Qualifying - LIVE!

Charles Leclerc, who trails Max Verstappen by nine points in the championship standings, bounced back from his Monaco misery a fortnight ago to blow away his rivals and take pole Baku.

The Ferrari man saw off Sergio Perez, who took advantage of Leclerc’s Monte Carlo frustrations to claim his third career win, by 0.282 seconds.

World champion Verstappen lines up his Red Bull in third place, one spot ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who was fastest after the first runs in Q3. George Russell out-qualified team-mate Hamilton for the fifth time this season.

He will start fifth tomorrow, two places ahead of Hamilton, who could drop further down the field if he is penalised for a qualifying misdemeanour of “driving unnecessarily slowly”.

The two McLaren cars failed to make it into the top ten, with Lando Norris 11th and Daniel Ricciardo 12th, while Lance Stroll’s crash in Q1 led to a red flag and he will start in 19th.

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