Qualifying In Baku: Formula 1’s Craziest Saturday

There wasn’t much time left for the drivers to improve once they were allowed back on track, so they all pushed their cars to the absolute limit. The strategy worked out for some, but led to a tragedy for others.

The two Alpine drivers began their flying laps one after another. Pierre Gasly was first, soaring through the corners, trying to climb out of the elimination zone. He never got to finish the lap since he overshot one of the turns and ended up in the runoff area. His teammate, Franco Colapinto, was so surprised by seeing him out that he crashed into the barrier right past that same corner. Due to his accident, the third red flag waved over the circuit, this one coinciding with the end of the session.

Q2: The Main Event

The only red flag of the second part of the qualifying made an appearance three minutes after the session began. It was brought out by Oliver Bearman, Haas’s rookie, who hit the wall coming out of turn two. Since he wasn’t able to move the car on his own, the session had to be stopped.

The rest of Q2 went on without interruption. Its main attraction was, without a doubt, Charles Leclerc, a man known for being lightning quick around the streets of Azerbaijan. Due to mistakes made in his first two attempts at flying laps, with only a few minutes on the clock, he still had no time on the board. He put his all into his third attempt, driving on the edge of what was safe. Despite hitting the wall at the same place Bearman had earlier in the session, he managed to improve and safely move through to the last part of the qualifying on Saturday.

Q3: The Encore

Q3, the shortest of the three qualifying sessions, was just as dramatic as its two predecessors. It began with some of the drivers reporting light rain and complaining about how slippery the track had become. Leclerc quickly found out just how bad the conditions were. During his first attempt at a lap that could end up giving him pole position, he hit the wall by turn 15, forcing the session to stop for the fifth time that day.

The conditions seemed to be worsening as the drivers waited to be allowed back on track, giving hope to the few, like Carlos Sainz, who had managed to put together laps before Leclerc’s accident. Neither of the main championship contenders, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, belonged to that group. With the pole still on the line, they were both willing to do anything it took to beat the other.

Piastri’s eagerness to prove his worth led to his demise. He pushed his McLaren just a bit too hard and ended up in the wall, bringing out the last red flag of the day. This provided the perfect opportunity for Norris to qualify high and give himself a chance to significantly decrease the championship gap. He didn’t end up using it to his advantage, as, due to a particularly poor lap, he qualified seventh, only two positions ahead of his rival. The coveted pole went to the reigning champion, Max Verstappen.

End Of My Qualifying Rant

The qualifying lasted almost an hour longer than it was supposed to. It has also broken the record for the most red flags during a Saturday session, with six in total being waved over the circuit. Many fans believed that it promised an equally exciting Grand Prix. The prediction didn’t really come true, but the qualifying itself will be remembered for years to come.