Baku: Russell takes pole by 0.837 s from Leclerc, quickest in all three sectors
Ahead of everyone in every sector, with a team-mate who leads the championship and starts sixteenth.
On Friday 25 September George Russell claimed pole in Baku with a 1:42.526, 0.837 s clear of Charles Leclerc. Oscar Piastri was third, a thousandth behind Leclerc.
No pole this season had come by so much. The widest so far was Kimi Antonelli's in Belgium, 0.317 s over Max Verstappen. It was Russell's first pole since Austria, at the end of June, and he says it is probably the biggest margin of his career, junior categories included.
He had been the man to beat since Friday morning: fastest in first and second practice, second to Verstappen in the third.
In Q3 Russell set the best time in all three sectors. Over Leclerc he gained 0.070 s in the first, 0.414 in the second and 0.353 in the third. The gap opened after the first sector.
Piastri reached almost the same time as Leclerc by a different route: he lost more in the first sector, 0.125 s, and less in the other two. Lando Norris had the best second sector after Russell. In the third he gave away 0.695 s and finished fifth. Verstappen, eighth, lost the most in the third sector of the ten Q3 drivers.
Russell explains that he used a single set of tyres for the whole of Q3. The first lap, still heavy with fuel, was there to put a banker on the board; pole came on the laps that followed. Leclerc says his strength in Baku is precision close to the walls, and that this time the car was not reacting the way he wanted: he had to keep more margin.
Sector times tell you in which sector time was lost, not in which corner. Within a sector no independent measurement establishes it.
On the other side of the garage, qualifying ended early. Antonelli, who leads the championship, touched the wall in Q1 and set no further time. He was sixteenth, and started from there.
He explains that he had a lot more headwind than on the lap before and that the front had more grip: turning in at roughly the same spot, the car turned more. He calls it a misjudgement, and an unnecessary one. Russell says it is Antonelli's first mistake in a qualifying session or a race all year.
The only segment in which both have an official time is Q1: Russell 1:43.615, Antonelli 1:45.504. That is not the gap between them. Antonelli's is the lap he set before the contact.
Antonelli credits Russell with making the difference over the weekend. He adds that the car was also very quick.
The next day the grid does not follow the classification. Carlos Sainz, ninth, started fourteenth: according to the stewards he failed to slow under yellow flags in the last seconds of Q3. Sergio Pérez was given a three-place penalty for impeding Piastri, who had to lift on a flying lap, even though the stewards ruled the incident was not dangerous.
Pérez, twentieth in qualifying, started twentieth, with the two Aston Martins behind him, sent to the back for using additional power unit elements.
Nothing changed at the front, and pole became victory: Russell won the race with Verstappen less than two tenths behind at the line.