Azerbaijan: Qualifications: Hat-trick for Vettel!
And three consecutive poles for Sebastian Vettel! In Baku, the German driver outpaced Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Only sixth, Kimi Räikkönen came close to making a good impact but made a mistake in his final flying lap.
Vettel had started the day well.
Not very prominent on Friday, 11th in FP2, Vettel had already set the fastest time in the final free practice session with a 1:43.091. He was ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen. With cool temperatures, the weather pushed back the times set during FP2. With relatively low grip, many mistakes were made during the session, with off-track excursions for Grosjean and Harley. Lewis Hamilton also experienced grip issues with his rear tires. The four-time world champion actually set his fastest time on his third flying lap!
Sergey Sirotkin, for his part, had caused a red flag six minutes before the end of the session. The Russian driver had damaged the right side of his Williams following a misjudgment on a long left-hand corner.
The drivers then left the pits for less than three minutes on the track.
Grosjean and Gasly out from Q1!
The session began with a fatal mistake for Romain Grosjean. The Haas driver missed a braking point, forcing him to take the escape road. Despite reversing, his car would not restart due to a mechanical issue. A big disappointment for the Frenchman, eliminated in the early laps of the session.
At the end of the session, a tragedy was narrowly avoided. Indeed, Brandon Hartley, with a flat tire, was circulating in the middle of the track. While on a qualifying lap, Pierre Gasly was coming at full speed… and narrowly avoided the crash!
The Norman also ended up in the escape area and could not get back on track. Marcus Ericsson and Stoffel Vandoorne were also eliminated as early as Q1.
Notable is Charles Leclerc’s strong performance, who reached Q2 for the first time this season.
Drama in Baku!
Hartley and teammate Gasly almost collide 💥#AzerbaijanGP 🇦🇿 #F1 pic.twitter.com/h6ayBqFJZK
— Formula 1 (@F1) 28 avril 2018
Räikkönen offers himself a great prospect in Q2…
The best time was achieved by Kimi Räikkönen in the final seconds. The Finnish driver had no choice but to attack following a mistake midway through the session. He got away with only a minor scare, forced to achieve his only real lap time on the final attempt, on ultra-softs, the only one among the six top contenders on the grid.
Once the initial hierarchy was established, the rest of the field set off on ultra-soft tires to avoid any risk for the transition to Q3. A session end fatal to the following drivers: Kevin Magnussen, Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, and the two Williams drivers.
Great performance by Esteban Ocon, who concludes the session with an impressive fifth fastest time.
… and gives Vettel the pole in Q3!
The championship leader dominated the clock with a time of 1:41.498 set in the first half of the session.
That’s a fine lap from Vettel
He clocks a 1:41.498s 🔥#AzerbaijanGP 🇦🇿 #F1 pic.twitter.com/qQW2InUHdP
— Formula 1 (@F1) 28 avril 2018
This performance is simply the benchmark of the weekend. Note that the best time from last year (1:40.593) has not been improved.
In any case, Lewis Hamilton will share the front row at the start tomorrow, outpaced by Vettel by 179 milliseconds.
The big frustration at the end of this session is for Kimi Räikkönen, who missed out on a pole position that was all but assured.
Leading by three-tenths over his teammate at the end of his final attempt, the Finn lost control of his car, oversteering in the last sector. Iceman ultimately finished more than a second off the best time, and he will only start from the sixth position tomorrow!
The only Frenchman present in Q3, Esteban Ocon, finished in an honorable seventh place, ahead of his teammate Sergio Pérez. The two teammates will try not to have the same collision as in the previous edition, the starting point of their crisis. They will be ahead of the two Renaults, Hülkenberg ahead of Sainz.
Vettel holds off the two Mercedes to take pole 💪
Both Force Indias in the top 10 👏#AzerbaijanGP 🇦🇿 #F1 pic.twitter.com/NhsQ6HL16E
— Formula 1 (@F1) 28 avril 2018
