Azerbaijan GP qualifying broke the F1 red flag record, here’s how

It took nearly two hours to resolve the grid for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, because of the six crimson flags that contributed to a stop-start qualifying. Whereas the Baku Metropolis Circuit is understood for its ravenous partitions, the better amount of spills largely demonstrated the problem of the circumstances.

These six crimson flags produced a brand new qualifying report, beating the 5 seen in final yr’s qualifying in Sao Paulo and 2022’s Imola spherical.

Baku is named the Metropolis of Winds, however the altering path of gusts across the circuit proved to be unsettling. As Lando Norris defined, it was “fairly unimaginable. I want everybody may perceive how troublesome it was with the wind, as a result of I’d say half the crashes you noticed at present had been in all probability due to wind”.

Others had been, after all, driver error – the closeness of the partitions imply that after you are dedicated to a nook, that is it. There isn’t any security web of run-off except a driver aborts their turn-in actually early. Let’s recap…

Incident 1: Alex Albon

Albon’s automotive is craned away after his Flip 1 wall-clip

Photograph by: Kym Illman / Getty Pictures

This was the primary look of the crimson flag on Saturday: Alex Albon was gearing up for a lap in Q1 and, instantly after getting the ball rolling, he put the steering in for Flip 1 a fraction too quickly and proceeded to clip the within wall together with his entrance left. The steering arm instantly broke, and he managed to corral his Williams to the facet of the street on the pit exit line.

Albon says that he had anticipated much less grip and had tried to compensate for it with a fractionally early turn-in, and thus was shocked when the circuit was rather more rubbered in than anticipated.

“It is my fault, no excuses actually, only a bit amateurish,” Albon remarked. “I feel I used to be first out on observe, so once I went into Flip 1 on the primary lap, it was actually inexperienced. After which I got here across the second time and the grip distinction was big and I used to be anticipating the entrance to slip slightly bit. It usually slides a bit and also you type of slide previous the wall. You nearly time it that you just get a little bit of understeer as you get near the wall.

“But it surely did not understeer, so it is clumsy and irritating. However yeah, we had a fast automotive. I feel I have been high eight just about each session and I have been feeling good with the automotive all weekend, so it is annoying to exit in what ought to be a Q3 automotive.”

Incident 2: Nico Hulkenberg

Twisted snout: Hulkenberg recovers to the pits together with his entrance wing lacking

Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Pictures through Getty Pictures

Oscar Piastri had been left and not using a time to his title throughout Q1, however managed to successfully ebook his place in Q2 simply two seconds earlier than the second crimson flag; Nico Hulkenberg had locked up at Flip 4 and caught his nostril into the Tecpro barrier.

Because the German went straight on at a comparatively low pace, he may reverse and trundle again to the pits sans entrance wing, however the crimson flag was maybe rapidly waved for the incident.

Hulkenberg was eradicated in seventeenth, regardless of going out once more with a brand new nostril to enhance on his closing run.

“I struggled with entrance locking much more than some other session,” the Sauber driver defined. “And that basically type of made all of the distinction. I feel not one lap with none entrance locking someplace and it is fairly expensive round right here. So, yeah, fairly annoying and irritating.”

Incident 3: Franco Colapinto

Colapinto touches the wall in Q1 together with his proper – later, he extra dramatically clips the wall together with his left

Photograph by: Joe Portlock / LAT Pictures through Getty Pictures

There was already a yellow flag down at Flip 4, when Pierre Gasly received caught out by a gust of wind and escaped to the run-off. Whereas the Frenchman was trying to extricate himself from the run-off, his Alpine team-mate Franco Colapinto got here barrelling by means of to set himself up for the right-hander.

Alonso had simply dumped Colapinto into the underside 5, and the Argentine’s possibilities had the second nail affixed to their coffin as he clouted the wall at Flip 4 simply because the chequered flag had been produced. Colapinto misplaced the entrance finish by means of Flip 4, washed broad, and clouted the Tecpro barrier together with his rear. It then bounced the entrance finish into the wall to double the harm.

It was a close to carbon copy of Colapinto’s FP1 shunt in Baku final yr, the place he appeared to only carry an excessive amount of pace into the nook and misplaced management on the brakes. That stated, Norris pointed to Flip 4 as being one of many worse corners for gusts: “Lots of people locked up. It appears like one of many worst corners I’ve ever pushed in my life. Simply because the tailwind is, I do not know, 50km/h or one thing. And it may be that on the following lap it is 10, and you are feeling you possibly can go a bit faster. You go faster the following lap, and also you’re within the wall. It is very troublesome.”

Incident 4: Ollie Bearman

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Crew

Photograph by: Kym Illman / Getty Pictures

Though Oliver Bearman said that wind was a consider his shunt on the exit of Flip 2, he was prepared to just accept the blame for his incident – Q2’s sole crimson flag after a bumper harvest of three in Q1.

Bearman took Flip 2 as regular, and swept to the apex earlier than taking the road near the wall. The rear finish stepped out and, though the glancing blow to his rear-right wheel was fairly small, it was sufficient to knock the trackrod out of service and left the Briton crabbing alongside the run to Flip 3 earlier than electing to cease.

“We have been quick all weekend after which I did a foolish mistake in qualifying,” Bearman rued post-session. “It was simply tremendous windy on the market and I simply received caught out by it.”

Incident 5: Charles Leclerc

Leclerc escapes the scene of the crime at Flip 15

Photograph by: Joe Portlock / LAT Pictures through Getty Pictures

With 4 consecutive poles across the Baku circuit, Charles Leclerc hoped to make it 5 on the bounce. Ferrari’s tempo had appeared good within the early phases of qualifying however, whereas Hamilton was caught out in Q2 and was eradicated regardless of anticipating to contend for pole, Leclerc was left as the only horse within the race by Q3.

The wind was augmented by a lightweight, barely perceptible rain bathe, however it was sufficient to make the observe floor really feel barely greasy. Leclerc was heading round Baku’s outdated city and nearly to hitch the coastal Neftchilar Avenue straight, however locked up at Flip 15 and dumped his Ferrari into the Tecpro barrier.

Below braking, the left entrance on Leclerc’s Ferrari was noticeably under-rotating and never providing the stopping energy wanted to get by means of the left-hander unscathed. His hopes of a fifth pole in Azerbaijan had evaporated.

Leclerc did not really feel that the troublesome circumstances had been the explanation for his shunt, however slightly Ferrari’s resolution to open Q3 on the mediums. “Q1 and all of the laps on the gentle felt a lot better. Then we went on the medium, which we had saved as a result of we thought it was the very best tyre, and at present with these temperatures it was simply unattainable for me to modify them on.

“And troublesome circumstances or not, I do not assume that that is the explanation – I feel we had been simply missing loads of tempo on the medium. I used to be in all probability seven or eight tenths off earlier than the error and I used to be pushing like loopy.”

Incident 6: Oscar Piastri

Piastri made a uncommon mistake within the closing phases of Q3

Photograph by: Mark Thompson – Getty Pictures

Piastri does not make many high-profile errors, however the Australian got here a cropper at Flip 3 with just below 4 minutes left on the clock. Whereas opening a flying lap on gentle tyres, Piastri missed the apex for the third 90-degree left-hander and his McLaren escaped from the racing line to type a symbiotic relationship with the other barrier.

“I feel tried a bit too onerous in Flip 3,” Piastri stated. “I have never really checked out what I did otherwise, as a result of I did not really feel like I did that a lot otherwise. However, , a tiny bit could make an enormous distinction.”

Neither Norris nor Verstappen had been capable of get their flying laps in, which left provisional poleman Carlos Sainz on high by means of the remaining crimson flag – however the Spaniard was ultimately deposed by Verstappen on the shut of the session.

Images from Azerbajian GP – Follow & Qualifying

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