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ICYMI: One of F1's most chaotic qualifying sessions, penalties & Marko devastated

ICYMI: One of F1's most chaotic qualifying sessions, penalties & Marko devastated

06-06-2021 02:00 Last update: 08:43
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Saturday in Baku provided perhaps one of the most chaotic qualifying sessions Formula 1 has ever seen. Plenty of crashes, plenty of red flags and some surprises up and down the grid. In the end, Charles Leclerc took his second consecutive pole position and this time the Ferrari driver will start from pole, unlike in Monaco. Here is your GPBlog Daily Round-up, covering the most important stories of the day. 

Charles Leclerc on pole! 

After not crashing at the end of the final qualifying session, like he did in Monaco, he will start the race at the very front, beating the likes of Lewis Hamilton in P2 and Max Verstappen in P3. Leclerc’s lap time of 1:41.218 was 0.232 seconds quicker than Hamilton and ensured he took the ninth pole position of his F1 career after receiving a tow down the main straight from the aforementioned Hamilton. 

Whilst Leclerc avoided a late Q3 crash, his teammate Carlos Sainz and Yuki Tsunoda weren't so fortunate as they crashed just seconds apart at the same corner with less than a minute left of the session. That meant nobody was able to better Leclerc's time and the Monegasque was on pole. Click here for the full report. 

Devasted Helmut Marko

Helmut Marko is disappointed that third place was the maximum Max Verstappen could achieve in Azerbaijan during qualifying. The top man at Red Bull says that without a red flag there would have been much more to come from the current world championship leader.

"Max was already faster, we have internal projections, but then Yuki and Sainz crashed then it was over again. Here you can forget tactics in qualifying, you have to go out in front and get a lap there as fast as possible." Click here for the full story. 

Wolff on Hamilton's tow

At the start of the 2017 season, Bottas was allowed to choose whether he would go onto the track first or second, and since then this has alternated. So this weekend it was Hamilton's turn to choose first and he 'logically' chose to go second on the track. That is a 'total coincidence', according to Wolff.

According to Marko, Hamilton would have gained almost half a second with this, but Wolff doesn't believe in that either. "If you actually try to execute that, it never works," said the Austrian, who attributes Hamilton's time gain mainly to the choice of a smaller rear wing. Click here for the full story

Three place grid penalty for Norris

The McLaren driver has also received three penalty points on his license for not entering the pit lane at the earliest opportunity during the red flag. He will now start the race on Sunday in ninth place. Click here for the full story.

Azerbaijan GP provisional grid

The Baku City Circuit has once again proven that it can make for chaotic sessions. The qualifying session was dominated by red flags, with Charles Leclerc eventually finishing in pole position. Click here for the provisional grid for tomorrow's race.