Sebastian Vettel secured pole position for the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas second and third.
Vettel’s third consecutive pole position was achieved on his first lap in Q3. The championship leader posted a 1m41.498s to grab provisional pole by 0.342s from Hamilton.
With the track evolving, Vettel had already made up time in the first two corners on his second lap. However, a lock-up at Turn 3 effectively ended the final run.
Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who was provisionally sixth, recorded two purple sectors on his final qualifying attempt, but a snap of oversteer at the 90 degree left-hander at Turn 16 meant that he lost a second in the final sector.
Both Mercedes’ improved on their second laps. Bottas briefly stole second from Hamilton before the reigning champion demoted his team-mate back to third place.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo will line up fourth after edging team-mate Max Verstappen in the final run of Q3. Verstappen, who had been ahead in the Red Bull inter-team battle through Q1 and Q2, was beaten to fourth by 0.083s.
After failing to improve on his first Q3 lap, Raikkonen qualified sixth. While he attempted to use the supersoft tyre in Q2 – with an aim to start the race on the more durable compound – mistakes at Turn 15 and Turn 3 on his two supersoft attempts meant that he switched to the ultrasoft late on.
As a result, Raikkonen is the only driver in the top six who will start the race on the unfavoured ultrasoft compound.
Force India enjoyed its best qualifying result of the season, with both cars in Q3 for the first time in 2018. Esteban Ocon qualified seventh, edging team-mate Sergio Perez into eighth place by 0.024s.
The Renault pair followed, with Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr ninth and 10th respectively. Hulkenberg will drop to 14th on the grid as a result of a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change prior to qualifying.
Williams was another team to achieve its best qualifying result of the season so far. Lance Stroll missed out on a place in Q3 by a tenth, qualifying in 11th and Sergey Sirtokin recovered from his FP3 crash to end up 12th.
Toro Rosso face an uncomfortable debrief after Brendon Hartley dramatically blocked Pierre Gasly in Q1. Hartley clipped the wall in the second sector and suffered a puncture. Gasly approached his slow-moving team-mate who occupied the middle of the track on entry to Turn 15. Gasly swerved to the right and narrowly avoided contact.
Gasly’s excursion curtailed a lap in which he was 0.7s ahead of his previous benchmark. He finished the session 17th while Hartley, who was unable to record a competitive lap time, qualified 19th.
Romain Grosjean will start last after he suffered a technical issue on his first lap in Q1. His session ended prematurely in the Turn 3 run-off.
