Russell storms to dominant Baku pole as championship leader Antonelli crashes

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept 25 : George Russell gave himself the best chance of putting a dent in Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli’s runaway championship lead as he seized pole after a rare mistake sent the Italian crashing out of qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The 28-year-old Briton appeared to be streets ahead of his rivals with his one minute 42.526 second lap, half a second quicker than his own previous benchmark, eclipsing his closest challenger, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, by 0.837 seconds.

“It’s been a while, so it definitely feels good,” said Russell after taking the 12th pole position of his career, his fifth of the season but first since the Austrian Grand Prix at the end of June.

“It’s probably the biggest margin in my whole career, even including F2, F3 days. So, the lap felt really sweet.

“The car’s been feeling great this weekend and on a track like this, when you can hook it up like that, it feels really amazing,” added the Briton.

Russell trails Antonelli by 81 points after 14 rounds.

He has looked in commanding form all weekend, however, with only four-times champion Max Verstappen denying him a practice clean sweep by just 0.099 seconds.

Already one of the favourites heading into qualifying, Russell's path to pole was smoothed by Antonelli’s exit.

The 20-year-old, who went into the weekend gunning for a third successive win and ninth of the season so far, clobbered the barrier lining the inside of the first corner in the opening phase of qualifying.

The contact broke his suspension and forced him to park up. He will start 16th.

“It’s a good way to come back to earth and to remind myself that I need to be on top of it every time because otherwise I do these mistakes and a very stupid one,” said Antonelli.

The Italian’s exit left the door open for other rivals to challenge Russell.

RIVALS STRUGGLE

McLaren appeared like they might stage a late resurgence as they did at Spain’s Madring two weeks ago but the best they could manage was third for Australian Oscar Piastri. 

World champion Lando Norris locked up on his final attempt and ended up fifth.

Verstappen also faded from contention, qualifying 1.5 seconds off the pace in eighth after being hobbled by power unit problems throughout qualifying and a yellow flag on his final run.

However his Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar, returning from an injury-enforced three-race break, came an impressive fourth.

Ferrari's seven-times champion Lewis Hamilton was only sixth ahead of Alpine's Pierre Gasly.

Carlos Sainz made it through to the final phase of qualifying in his updated Williams but will drop five places after being hit with a penalty for failing to slow for yellow flags.

That will move Alpine's Franco Colapinto up to ninth with Haas racer Oliver Bearman rounding out the top 10.

Mexican Sergio Perez was also hit with a three-place grid drop for impeding Piastri.

But the Cadillac driver could still end up starting 20th, where he qualified, with Aston Martin pair Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll carrying hefty power unit related penalties.

The Baku street circuit is known for throwing up unpredictable races.

There have been seven different winners in the nine races it has hosted, while only three races at the track have been won from pole.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the first of a "triple header" of races on consecutive weekends, ⁠is being run on Saturday this year with the country marking its Remembrance Day on Sunday.