Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc made it two pole positions in as many days by leading the new sprint shootout at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Leclerc took pole for Saturday’s sprint race despite crashing on his final lap of the shortened qualifying session.
He beat Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, with Mercedes driver George Russell in fourth and Lewis Hamilton sixth behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was eighth after issues with his DRS.
There may be controversy after Leclerc’s crash, as there is an ongoing debate in F1 as to whether a driver who crashes on his final qualifying run should be penalised for doing so, as it potentially can affect other drivers.
In this case, the only driver compromised by Leclerc’s crash was Sainz, who was running behind him at the time. Everyone else was able to complete their lap.
Leclerc said: “With the soft tyre was a little bit tricky. You get into Q3 and we haven’t driven on these tyres since yesterday. It’s not so long and the conditions were very different and the rears overheated a bit on the first lap.
“[On my final lap] I was behind compared to my first lap and was pushing a bit ,but I overdid it in Turn Five.”
He said he expected to struggle to stay in front of the Red Bulls in the sprint, which starts at 14:30 UK time.
Leclerc said: “We will go for it but we need to be realistic – until now we have been on the back foot in the race compared to the Red Bull.”
His margin over Perez was 0.147 seconds, Verstappen was 0.143secs behind his team-mate.
Russell atoned for missing out on the final qualifying session on Friday with a strong performance to take fourth.
Hamilton said: “I just struggled with the rear end on the last lap and didn’t get a tow – the Red Bulls pulled too far ahead.”
Aston Martin’s problems provided an opportunity for Williams driver Alex Albon, who was seventh.
The British-born Thai was disappointed to miss out on Q3 for the grand prix on Friday, feeling he would have done so had he not been held up by Sainz.
Aston Martin have had ongoing problems making the DRS overtaking aid work this weekend.
A spokesperson said: “The DRS operation issue remains unresolved across both cars during that shoot-out.”
The aid worked more on Lance Stroll’s car than on Alonso’s, he said, but was not working all the time. The team are “working to resolve it ahead of the sprint”.
