Charles Leclerc beats Oscar Piastri to take pole in Azerbaijan, while Lando Norris suffers a surprise Q1 exit | Formula 1®

Q2 – Verstappen leads Leclerc ahead of pole shootout

As the remaining 15 drivers returned to the track for the start of Q2, Verstappen and Perez stepped up a gear to form a provisional Red Bull one-two – the Dutchman set a time of 1m42.042s – while Piastri moved into third place ahead of Russell, Bearman and Sainz.

Albon, Hamilton, Leclerc and Hülkenberg occupied the last places in the top 10 at this point, so Colapinto, Alonso, Gasly, Tsunoda and Stroll still had a lot of work to do in the final, decisive runs, which would bring them a lot of purple and green sector times.

Ferrari were a little out of sync with their race plan at this point, allowing Leclerc to finish second and Sainz fourth on the open track, while Perez was the only driver able to sit in his garage and watch the rest of the action as the minutes ticked by and the chequered flag was waved.

There were no further improvements at the front in the final laps, with Verstappen remaining in first place ahead of Leclerc and Perez, followed by Russell, Alonso and an inspired Colapinto, who brilliantly secured his place in the pole position shootout on just his second weekend.

Sainz, Piastri, Hamilton and Albon's other Williams also made it through, edging out Bearman, who called himself an “idiot” over the radio after an apparent error, Tsunoda's RB, Gasly's Alpine, Hülkenberg's other Haas and Stroll's Aston Martin.

Eliminated: Bearman, Tsunoda, Gasly, Hülkenberg, Stroll