Late show from Lewis denies Bottas in Baku as dominant Mercedes lock out front row; Title leader Vettel behind Raikkonen in fourth
Sunday 25 June 2017 00:08, UK
Lewis Hamilton banished his Baku qualifying demons of 12 months ago to claim a resounding pole for the Azerbaijan GP, as title leader Sebastian Vettel could only manage fourth.
Moving one clear of Ayrton Senna into sole possession of second place on F1's pole table, and just two behind Michael Schumacher's all-time record, Hamilton overcame inconsistent practice form and then a Q3 mistake and red flag to deny team-mate Valtteri Bottas top spot by four tenths of a second with a stunning final lap of 1:40.593.
"Great driving from Hamilton," said Sky F1's Martin Brundle of Hamilton's 66th career pole and fifth of the season. "Neat and tidy, but he was just carrying good speed."
What time does Sunday's race start?
Two weeks after cutting Vettel's title lead to 12 points, Hamilton is also in perfect position to move even closer in Sunday's race at 2pm BST after his Ferrari rival struggled to fourth.
Vettel, who suffered a pre-qualifying engine change, will start one place behind team-mate Kimi Raikkonen on an all-Ferrari second row.
But most concerning for Ferrari is likely to be their final qualifying gap to Mercedes: 1.1 seconds, by far the largest advantage any team has enjoyed on a Saturday all season.
Max Verstappen came close to relegating Vettel a further place, missing out by just 0.038s, but suggestions Red Bull could be in the fight for pole after strong practice form fell flat as Mercedes ran away at the front.
Nonetheless, Verstappen believes he would have been third instead of fifth had a gearbox issue not affected his final run.
However, team-mate Daniel Ricciardo will start from 10th after the Australian brought out the red flags towards the end of the first Q3 runs when tagged the barriers at Turn Six and stopped on track.
Force India took sixth and seventh with Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon respectively, with Williams directly behind as Lance Stroll, fresh from his first F1 points in Montreal, outpaced veteran team-mate Felipe Massa for the first time.
Hamilton produces under pressure
Keen to make up for his performance at Baku's inaugural event in 2016, when an error-strewn qualifying left him 10th before an engine mode glitch afflicted his race, Hamilton impressively topped Q1 and Q2 with Mercedes appearing to hit the W08's set-up sweet spot just in time for qualifying.
He was then flying on his first lap in Q3, but a mistake in the final sector meant he crossed the line behind Bottas's then-provisional pole time.
Ricciardo's crash with just three minutes on the clock then threatened to scupper Hamilton's chances as all cars were forced to return to the pits. Yet he picked up where he left off on his final set of supersofts and, despite Bottas posting his own improvement, Hamilton beat the Finn by nearly half a second.
"That was one of the most exciting laps that I've had all year," said Hamilton. "A lot of pressure. The first lap I had the time but I made a mistake.
"A lot of pressure because of getting temperature in the tyre but the lap just got better and better. Coming out of the last corner I was just 'thinking please be enough'."
Meanwhile, qualifying three places behind his chief title rival, Vettel refused to pin all the blame for his middling qualifying performance on the earlier engine change in the wake of a hydraulics leak on his SF70-H.
"The result is Ok but I'm not entirely happy," he said. "This morning didn't help but it's not an excuse, we are doing a lot of laps. At the end I was alone and had no tow in the last sector. I'm no fan of excuses, I could have done a bit better but probably P3 was the maximum."
More pain for McLaren and Palmer
Meanwhile, already knowing they would be starting at the back of the field with 40 and 35-place grid penalties respectively for a myriad of engine and gearbox penalties, McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne dropped out in Q1.
Alonso, who still maintains his perfect qualifying record against Vandoorne, who was slowest of all, missed out on Q2 by mere hundredths of a second despite Honda's engine lagging a long way behind on Baku's 1.2-mile straight.
Mercedes not talking to McLaren yet
Asked about an incident in Q1 when Ricciardo thought the McLaren had blocked him, Alonso wryly told Sky F1: "Our speed is that slow that they think we are on a slow lap but no this is our speed, we are starting a timed lap so they get surprised a bit."
However, beleaguered McLaren-Honda will be spared a back-row lockout by the luckless Jolyon Palmer, who was unable to take part in qualifying after an engine fire in his Renault in final practice.
The Englishman, who crashed on Friday, is without a point this season and has had to field questions all weekend about what to appears to be his precarious Renault future.
Having not taken part in qualifying, Renault later received permission for Palmer to start Sunday's race from the back of the field behind the penalised McLarens.
Azerbaijan GP Qualifying Results
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:40.593
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, +0.434
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, +1.100
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, +1.248
5. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, +1.286
6. Sergio Perez, Force India, +1.518
7. Esteban Ocon, Force India, +1.593
8. Lance Stroll, Williams, +2.160
9. Felipe Massa, Williams, +2.205
10. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, +2.821
Knocked out in Q2
11. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1:43.186
12. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:43.347*
13. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 1:43.796
14. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 1:44.267
15. Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber, 1:44.603
Knocked out in Q1
16. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:44.334**
17. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 1:44.468
18. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:44.795
19. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1:45.030***
20. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, No time
*three-place grid penalty
*** 40-place grid penalty
***35-place grid penalty
Don't miss the Azerbaijan GP live on Sky Sports F1 on Sunday - lights out for the race is at 2pm. Check out all the ways to watch F1 on Sky Sports for subscribers and non-subscribers - including a NOW TV day pass for £6.99!
Comment below to get involved in the debate, but please adhere to our House Rules. If you wish to report any comment, simply click on the down arrow next to the offending comment and click 'Report'.
