F1 Azerbaijan GP LIVE: Race start time, schedule and qualifying results with Russell on pole

Antonelli, who has reigned supreme so far this season – winning eight of the 14 F1 rounds staged to secure an 81-point lead – displayed the first dent in his championship armour when he misjudged the opening corner and hit the wall in Baku.

The Q1 accident meant Antonelli could play no further part to leave him 16th on the grid.

Q1 was fairly solid and there were some positive elements to take from the session. However, getting the tyre temperatures right was a challenge throughout qualifying and that made it difficult to consistently get them into the right operating window.

“We struggled to extract the grip we were looking for, particularly in Q3, and not having a tow on the final run also made it more difficult to maximise the lap. The car itself is not in a bad place, but there are a few areas for us to understand better.

“We’ll go through everything tonight and focus on putting ourselves in the best position possible for tomorrow’s race.”

“Incredible mistake – and on a weekend where his teammate is in a league of his own.

“Not the best time for that but the current rules facilitate getting through the field.”

1. George Russell (Mercedes)

2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

3. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

4. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull)

5. Lando Norris (McLaren)

6. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)

8. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

9. Carlos Sainz (Williams)

10. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)

12. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)

13. Alex Albon (Williams)

15. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls)

16. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)

17. Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi)

18. Nico Hulkenberg (Audi)

19. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

20. Sergio Perez (Cadillac)

21. Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac)

22. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

“It was quite a good lap, Lewis was in front, I managed to do a good lap in the end, when i see the gap to George, maybe it wasn’t good enough!

“We’ve been on the back foot, today I had a bit more hope, position is where we expected but gap is a lot more.

“We’ll see tomorrow, our straight line speed is not our strength but the pace has been quite strong, hopefully the case tomorrow. “

“It’s been a while – definitely feels good, probably the best margin in my career including F2 and F3. On a track like this, when you can hook it up like that, it looks pretty amazing.

“I was feeling good, Max has been very fast, maybe the yellow flag? Perfect lap at the end, nice gap to Hadjar which gave me a nice slipstream.

On race: “Feeling good, in a great place to go for the win, but this is Baku, anything can happen! Whatever happens I feel confident.”

1. George Russell (Mercedes)

2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

3. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

4. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull)

5. Lando Norris (McLaren)

6. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)

8. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

9. Carlos Sainz (Williams)

10. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)

Russell: “Great job, pretty decent lap, how much was it?”

Engineer: “Just over eight-tenths to Leclerc.”

Russell did go again – and went even quicker by half-a-second! He takes pole with a 1:42:526 – his 12th pole in Formula 1.

Charles Leclerc is second, eight-tenths off, with Oscar Piastri in third. Max Verstappen down in eighth, with his Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar in fourth!

4-10: Hadjar, Norris, Hamilton, Gasly, Verstappen, Sainz, Colapinto