Max Verstappen secured pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in a dramatic and lengthy qualifying session that was halted by a record six red flags.
The Red Bull driver navigated nearly two hours of on-track drama to claim his second consecutive pole and his first on the Baku street circuit. The session was marked by numerous incidents, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri among several drivers who hit the barriers.
On his final run, as rain began to fall, Verstappen clocked a 1:41.117 to deny Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz a potential pole position by nearly half a second.
“It was a long and difficult qualifying with so many red flags,” Verstappen said afterward. “It was hard to get your lap together because most of the time your tyres weren’t ready, or another red flag would happen. Q3 was especially challenging with a bit of rain around.”
He explained that the numerous stoppages had depleted his preferred tyre sets, forcing him to adapt. “On the final lap, you just have to send it,” he added. “I wasn’t even on the best tyres I wanted, but we ran out. I’m very happy with how the weekend is going; we kept improving and were there when it mattered.”
Securing his sixth pole of the season, Verstappen enters Sunday’s 51-lap race with momentum from his recent victory at Monza. He remained focused on the challenge ahead, emphasizing tyre management.
“It’s a long race,” he said. “You want a good start, but we just need to run our own race and look after our tyres. The softer compounds make it tough around here, so we’ll see what happens.”
Elsewhere on the grid, RB’s Yuki Tsunoda celebrated his best qualifying result of the season, securing sixth place.
“I’ll take it as a positive,” Tsunoda commented. “In this kind of qualifying, anything can go wrong. While I’m not completely happy with the Q3 run, I’ll take P6 and look forward to tomorrow.”
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