Russell charges to pole position as Antonelli suffers shock exit in Qualifying for Azerbaijan GP

George Russell clinched his fifth pole position of the 2026 season in a remarkably competitive Qualifying hour for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with the Briton finding himself as the lone Mercedes driver after Kimi Antonelli crashed out of Q1.

It looked like four teams would be in contention for the top spot, but Russell improved with every lap in Q3 to establish a dramatic advantage of eight tenths over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, ending the session with a time of 1m 42.526s.

Oscar Piastri was just 0.001s off the Monegasque in third place, leading Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and the second McLaren of Lando Norris, who suffered a lock-up on his final lap that prevented him from finding more time.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton settled for P6 ahead of Pierre Gasly, Max Verstappen and Williams’ Carlos Sainz, maximising the team’s extensive upgrade package. Franco Colapinto rounded out the top 10 for Alpine after struggling to set a representative lap.

Haas’ Ollie Bearman narrowly missed out on a spot in Q3 and wound up P11 ahead of Liam Lawson and Alex Albon, who was not best pleased after his Williams team mate failed to support him with a tow.

Esteban Ocon took 14th place in front of Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad, whose session was affected by mistakes, as Antonelli’s session-ending contact with the wall at Turn 1 left him far behind his frontrunning rivals in P16.

Despite bringing major upgrades to the Baku City Circuit, both Audi drivers exited in Q1, led by Gabriel Bortoleto in P17 while Nico Hulkenberg finished just behind in P18.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was next after enduring a big lock-up that forced him to escape onto a run-off area, but a hefty grid penalty for new power unit components will relegate him and his team mate Lance Stroll to the back row.

That will promote the Cadillac pair of Sergio Perez – a former race winner here – and Valtteri Bottas to P19 and P20 respectively on tomorrow's grid, with Aston Martin bringing up the rear.

AS IT HAPPENED

Q1 – Russell fastest as Antonelli disastrously clips the wall

The three practice sessions that preceded Qualifying saw plenty of near-misses with the walls of Baku, and after last season saw a record-breaking six red flags in this all-important hour, it remained to be seen just how disrupted this would be.

After a short delay, the 18-minute opening segment began as a long queue of drivers exited the pit lane, with Cadillac’s Bottas the first out to tackle the warm and noticeably windy track.

It didn’t take long for the first yellow flag to be thrown as Stroll locked up and veered off the circuit, but the Canadian managed to avoid the barriers and continue on. The error was a stark reminder that the early laps would be crucial, especially if any bigger incidents caused Qualifying to be halted.

The Alpine pair of Colapinto and Gasly, who had been impressive throughout practice and looked capable of a Q3 appearance, were among the first to complete their opening efforts on the soft tyres, but it was Red Bull returnee Hadjar who claimed the initial benchmark time of 1m 44.702s.

Meanwhile, his team mate Verstappen couldn’t hide his frustration at the ride quality, reporting that the car “is bottoming like crazy on the front, I can’t brake”. He wasn’t the only unhappy frontrunner, with Russell complaining of front locking before Antonelli hit the wall at Turn 1, causing terminal damage to his Mercedes in a significant blow to his weekend.

The championship leader battled to take the car back to the pits but was ordered to park up in a safe position, cutting his session short as his race engineer Pete Bonnington confirmed that they would not be able to fix his suspension in time to set another lap.

As the sole Mercedes left, Russell lost the top spot to Verstappen and was demoted further by Hadjar and Hamilton, with the Dutchman briefly enjoying an advantage of 0.120s. However, Russell found significantly more time on his last run to wind up as the fastest on track at the conclusion of Q1, albeit by mere thousandths.

At the other end of the timesheets, it was Bearman, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Perez, Bottas and Stroll who were at risk heading into the final minutes. The Haas racer delivered a great lap under pressure to improve, subsequently dropping both Audi drivers into the elimination zone.

Knocked out: Bortoleto, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Perez, Bottas, Stroll

Q2 – Russell tops the times again while Racing Bulls drop out

Following the big shock of Antonelli’s exit that would leave him P16 on the grid, the remaining 15 drivers ventured back out for Q2, which began with a mistake from Racing Bulls’ Lindblad.

Just as in Q1, Hadjar closely matched Verstappen in his first Qualifying session since July, although it was Russell who comfortably set the early time to beat with a 1m 43.686s. The first runs ticked off, he found himself ahead of Leclerc, the two McLarens and Hamilton.

Hadjar then surged into P3, just 0.194s adrift of Russell to make it four different teams at the top, hinting at a close battle for pole position later on. Alpine’s Gasly also posted an eye-catching lap after receiving a tow from his team mate, helping him to jump up to P7.

That was key for the tight midfield battle with Racing Bulls as both Lawson and Lindblad needed to find significant improvements to progress to Q3. The latter opted not to go again after making another blunder, and the pair missed out alongside Bearman, Albon, Ocon and Antonelli.

Knocked out: Bearman, Lawson, Albon, Ocon, Lindblad, Antonelli

Q3 – Russell triumphs by a massive margin

The time had arrived for the pole position fight, which looked as though it would come down to the wire between Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. After leading the pack throughout, Russell was the likely favourite – especially as his final attempt in Q2 had put him two-tenths clear of Verstappen.

While he was the first to finish a lap, it wasn’t enough to match his earlier times, opening the door for McLaren to charge through and snatch provisional pole – Norris took P1 before Piastri made the most of a slipstream to eke out a critical margin of 0.101s.

Hadjar was the next to use a relatively quiet track and move into P3, but further behind, Russell was on a spectacular lap that sent him back to the top with an advantage of around four tenths over Ferrari’s Leclerc.

His competitors weren’t done quite yet, but their efforts were ultimately in vain as Russell went even quicker to clinch pole position by a colossal 0.837s, beating Leclerc, Piastri and Hadjar.

Norris settled for fifth after locking up on his final lap, leaving him to line up for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of Hamilton, Gasly, Verstappen, Sainz and Colapinto.

Key quote

"It’s been a while, so it definitely feels good," said Russell. "It’s probably the biggest margin of my whole career, even including F2, F3 days, so the lap felt really sweet. The car’s been feeling great this weekend, and on a track like this, when you can hook it up like that, it feels really amazing."

What's next

The 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is set to begin at 1500 local time on Saturday. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can follow the action from Baku.