Formula 1 qualifying on a street circuit is always something to look forward to because, while no points are scored, it’s often the decisive day of the weekend.
Since his days at Williams, George Russell has been named ‘Mr. Saturday’ because of his exceptional skill on a single low-fuel lap. At Mercedes, this was magnified as he effectively challenged the most successful qualifier the sport has ever seen – Lewis Hamilton. This year proved to be a bit more difficult for George, with the new regulations seemingly hampering some of that pace.
And while he has managed special pole positions this season, they haven’t been as commanding as the one we saw on Friday in Baku. He delivered near-perfect execution throughout the sessions, building up to a lap he himself called “unbelievable”. A highly deserved pole position and the biggest pole margin in fully dry qualifying since Nigel Mansell at Suzuka in 1992. A staggering 8 tenths over the rest of the field!
In final practice, Max Verstappen led, followed by George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. All looked strong throughout the weekend. Kimi Antonelli had lost track time to a hydraulic problem in Thursday practice, but he was fourth in the final session and, with 6 pole positions already this season, he couldn’t be counted out. Isack Hadjar had just come back from injury and hit the ground running, while Ferrari had Charles Leclerc: the only driver in history with multiple poles in Azerbaijan. McLaren seemed slightly adrift.
One of these contenders fell early. Kimi Antonelli made a mistake on his second Q1 lap. He “misjudged the entry to Turn 1” [Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes], which ended his day. His first lap was good enough to get him into Q2 on paper. Cadillac and Aston Martin were knocked out in Q1, as expected, with Aston Martin already having committed to pit lane starts for the weekend. Audi’s exit at this stage was rather surprising. Haas and the newly upgraded Williams knocked them back.
Q2 was business as usual for the Top 4 teams – all seven drivers getting through to the Top 10 comfortably while Racing Bulls, Alpine, Williams, and Haas drivers fought for the last 3 slots. Racing Bulls and Haas didn’t seem to have enough pace to challenge the Mercedes power units in Alpine and Williams. Oliver Bearman put in a great effort but got relegated to P11 by Franco Colapinto at the literal last second. Carlos Sainz proved to be the standout at this stage, grabbing P9 by splitting the Alpines.
This was Williams’ first Q3 entry in 2026 and would’ve been their best race start of the season if not for a ‘failure to slow for yellow flags’ that dropped him 5 grid positions to P14. Franco was promoted to P9, and Oliver got a P10 start back.
Yellow flags mean a driver has to slow measurably, and the stewards check the throttle and brake traces rather than take a driver’s word for it. Sainz was judged not to have slowed enough, and the five place penalty turned Williams’ first Q3 of the season into a P14 start.
The drivers behind him move up: Colapinto starts ninth, Bearman tenth.
The final session, Q3, is what everyone builds to. And no one built to it quite like George Russell. He started the day fastest in final practice, then went on to be fastest in Q1 before, you guessed it, being fastest in Q2. “Everything came together”, as he said. His final lap of the day was also his fastest lap: “The first run was a banker because I knew there was more time to find, and I wanted to push the limits on the second lap.” And that he did. Pushed it to its absolute limit and took pole by 0.837 seconds. Ridiculous.
“Everything came together.”
Charles Leclerc took P2; the most successful qualifier in Baku was on the front row. No better position was possible, with the Ferraris having a clear straight-line deficit to the Mercedes. Oscar Piastri followed just 0.001 seconds behind to take P3. And while Max Verstappen had shown himself to be a challenger for pole, he finished P8 and was outqualified by his teammate, who had just come back from injury and missed 3 races yet put the car in P4. Later we would find out that this was the result of an engine issue he was nursing.
“Already from Q1, my engine is already half a second down on the straight compared to my teammate, and they can’t understand why, so you’re just on the back foot. Then in Q3, on my middle lap, which is normally a good lap, exiting the final corner, Turn 16, my battery just didn’t charge to 100%, so I had to abort the lap.”
To add to these frustrations, he was hampered by a yellow flag on his final lap. The flag came after Lando Norris had an off-track moment, which put him in P5. Lewis Hamilton’s track position left him a sitting duck in Q3. He came away with P6, while Pierre Gasly had another good day at the office, earning a P7 for his team.
George Russell will challenge for his 8th career win to cut down his 81-point championship gap to Kimi Antonelli with 8 races to go. Yes, Baku has the longest straight on the calendar, but overtaking here is still difficult. The track has a qualifying bias, but Kimi starts well out of order in P16 and could challenge for a much stronger spot with his Mercedes power. In 2024, Lando Norris and McLaren used a reverse strategy to go from P15 to P4.
We go racing on a Saturday this time, one of only two Saturday races on the 2026 calendar along with Las Vegas. It will be Formula 1’s 10th race in Azerbaijan. And who better to take the win than Mr. Saturday.
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