F1 qualifying results: Charles Leclerc beats the Bulls in Azerbaijan

The field is set for Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

And for the first time this season, Red Bull is not on pole.

Charles Leclerc snatched pole position from the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, giving Ferrari something to smile about after a difficult start to their 2023 campaign. P1 came down to the final seconds of the third qualifying session, with the Ferrari driver just inching ahead of the Bulls to grab his third-straight pole at Baku.

Here is the qualifying order, and some notes from Friday’s three sessions.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc might want to release more music.

Leclerc made news earlier this week as the driver released his first song, AUS23 1:1, a piano composition that soon worked its way up the charts on iTunes and other streaming services.

He made news on Friday, inching past Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to grab the pole at Azerbaijan. It marks the third-straight time that Leclerc qualified up front at the trick Baku City Circuit:

“For sure I’m surprised,” said Leclerc after qualifying. “It’s a really good surprise, we must not forget that our race car is still behind the Red Bulls, so it is going to be difficult to keep the lead.”

Still, the surprise is a welcome one for Ferrari, after their very difficult start to the season.

Speaking of difficult starts ...

Friday got off to a tough start for Pierre Gasly. His Alpine suffered a loss of pressure near the end of practice, forcing him to retire from the practice session as his A523 caught fire on the track:

While the team somehow managed to get his car ready for qualifying, his session ended midway through Q1 when he slid off the track at Turn 3 and into the barrier, cutting his qualifying run short.

Not only will Gasly have to start at the back of the field on Sunday, he will be forced to run both the Saturday Sprint and the Grand Prix itself without anywhere near the time on track that his competitors have enjoyed.

After the second red flag flew during Q1 for Gasly’s scrape with the wall, radio communications for a few different teams focused not on the state of their cars, but rather the angle of the sun.

Both Verstappen and Leclerc radioed into their teams that the sun angle was becoming a problem, with Leclerc asking if the team had a darker visor for him to use, and Red Bull offering some tape to Verstappen to cut down the glare.

The angle of the sun posed the biggest problem for drivers in the tricky middle sector of the track, as the cars drivers wind their way through the “castle” sector of the track. That portion of the Baku City Circuit is difficult as it is, as drivers come uphill and lose a clear vision of the track for a split second, forcing them to just “trust their instincts” as noted on F1TV.

But having to do that while staring into the sun poses a very difficult challenge.

By the final moments of Q3, the sun had dipped low enough in the sky to allow drivers a better view through that portion of the track, but the angle certainly made for some nerve-wracking moments on Friday.

At the close of Q2 there was a stunning battle for the final spot in Q3 with Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, and others fighting to advance.

When all was said and done we had our first true shocker of the week, as it was Russell who was left on the outside looking in.

It was a slow start to the season for McLaren, but Melbourne offered signs of hope. The team notched double points in the Australian Grand Prix, with Lando Norris finishing in P6 and Piastri locking in P8.

Was the McClaren comeback upon us?

I asked Norris about that earlier this week, but the driver noted that there was a long way to go this season. However, Friday’s result should give McLaren and their fans even more hope. Both Piastri and Norris pushed into Q3, with Norris set to start in P7, and Piastri in P10.

For a moment in Q3 Verstappen and Leclerc were up front 1:40.445 in the first row.

With matching times of 1:40.445.

Leclerc and the Ferrari pit were rather surprised at the development:

As noted above, eventually it was Leclerc who broke through, snatching pole position and becoming the first driver on the grid to wrestle a pole position away from Red Bull.

Now the challenge is wrestling P1 away from them, a challenge Leclerc will take on this Sunday.