Azerbaijan GP Qualifying Sees Charles Leclerc Take P1, Ferrari Fights Red Bull Again

It's the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, taking place in Baku, and we now get to see the cars go out on track for the first time in what feels like forever in a spectacular qualifying session. And in typical Formula 1 fashion, we get a bit of drama with crashes, reliability issues, and the rejuvenation of the rivalry between Red Bull and Ferrari following a poor run of form from the team with the prancing horse.

Starting at the back, both of Alpine's cars have encountered reliability issues during the practice session, something that also plagued the team last year. This saw Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly relegated to the bottom of the time sheets in the first practice session, a result that did not improve by much in qualifying. Pierre Gasly smacked the wall in the first qualifying session and was left in 19th place, while Esteban Ocon did not do much better, lingering in P12. Q1 turned to chaos when de Vries crashed, and the quali session had to be red-flagged.

Speaking of the timing sheets, one team that managed to shoot above its weight was McLaren, with both Lando Norris and his rookie teammate Oscar Piastri delivering good results. The pair managed to get into the third qualifying session, with Norris managing to displace Oscar Piastri, Yuki Tsunoda, and Lance Stroll to get the seventh place.

The team entered the 2023 season with a car with severe aerodynamic efficiency problems, generating too much drag in return for unsatisfactory downforce. But after a poor start and promises of upgrades, McLaren delivered, bringing a new floor design, tweaks to the beam wing, and a low-drag rear wing.

And these upgrades have worked, although the team says it's now in the position it should have been at the start of the season, and they're still playing catch up. But even with this improvement, fans of the Woking-based racing outfit should not get their hopes up just yet, as McLaren hasn't run an entire race distance yet.

Most other teams have also brought upgrades for the Azerbaijan GP, the most common being a low-drag rear wing, as Baku is a power circuit. It is filled with hard braking followed by long straights, where reducing drag is crucial, even if it comes at the cost of some downforce.

Meanwhile, most eyes were focused on Mercedes, who is now in the second subpar season in a row and stuck in an awkward battle with Aston Martin. The Silver Arrows are looking to bounce back from their slumber with a new front suspension setup and a tech shuffle between Mike Elliott and James Allison. But today, the team did not seem to make progress, with Lewis Hamilton scoring a lowly fifth while George Russell found himself just outside the top 10.

However, one team that did bounce back was Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc managing to top the qualifying session, less than two-tenths of a second ahead of Max Verstappen, who came in second. Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz was fourth on the grid, behind the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez. Fernando Alonso sits just outside the top five we just went through, with his chances to keep a podium streak going not looking great.