Leclerc, who is nine points behind leader Max Ferstappen in the league standings, jumped out of his misery in Monaco a fortnight ago to blow up his opponents. The Monegasques ousted Sergio Pérez, who took advantage of Leclerc’s Ferrari flat team in Monte Carlo to claim his third career victory in 0.282 seconds. Verstappen, the world champion, is in third place, one place ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. George Russell has beaten his Mercedes team-mate Hamilton for the fifth time in eight laps this season. Russell will start fifth on Sunday, two places ahead of Hamilton, who could fall lower on the pitch if he is penalized for a foul during the qualifiers. Hamilton, who finished 1.6 seconds behind Leclerc and two tenths of a second behind Russell, seemed to be delaying his English compatriot Lando Norris in the final minutes of Q2. While Hamilton advanced to the top-10 shoot-out, Norris was eliminated and finished 11th. Norris racing engineer Will Joseph told his driver at Hamilton: “It’s the first car, it’s going to get in trouble. “Don’t let him play stupid excavators.” After claiming his sixth pole of the season and fourth in a row, Leclerc said: “All the poles feel good, but I did not expect that because I thought the Red Bulls were stronger. But the last round came together and I’m extremely happy. I’m very excited for tomorrow. “ Hamilton, who is heading into Sunday’s game 75 points behind league leader Verstappen, had a difficult weekend here and received a warning from his team not to drive slowly out of the round. He replied: “I do not know what you expect from me, friend, sometimes.” Charles Leclerc leads the streets of Baku on the pole position for the F1 GP of Azerbaijan. Photo: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 / Getty Images Hamilton has been summoned to the courts at 8.20 p.m. local time (5.20 pm) and faces a possible grid drop if found guilty of violating the rules. Hamilton’s Mercedes team continues to fight the seal here. “The car is reaching a dangerous bottom,” Hamilton said as he reached speeds approaching 220 mph. Q1 won a red flag with two and a half minutes left after the Lance Stroll crash. Just moments after hitting a dam, before reversing the problem, the Canadian driver hit the wall a second time. Stroll sped off in the second lap, lost control of his Aston Martin and picked up the tire barrier. Stroll was forced to park his injured motorcycle as race director Niels Wittich raised the red flag. Quick guide
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Thank you for your response. This was followed by a 10-minute delay for track repairs before a frantic hike to avoid falling into the first hurdle. Kevin Magnussen of Haas and Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi of Williams were eliminated. Fighter Mick Schumacher also failed to improve and will be ranked 20th and last for the race. Following is a quote from Tony Dodgins
