At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc took his sixth pole position of the season.
With his final lap, Leclerc beat Red Bull's Perez by 0.284 seconds.
Max Verstappen was beaten by 0.065 seconds by Perez.
A series of mistakes on his final lap left Carlos Sainz fourth after he was fastest after the first two runs.
Despite errors on his key laps in the first and second sessions, Leclerc continued his status as Formula 1's qualification king.
Leclerc said he didn't expect it because he thought Red Bull were stronger. I didn't know we were faster in Q1 and Q2 but I was able to do a good lap in Q3
Since the third race of the season in Australia, Leclerc has not been able to convert a pole into a win.
The engine failure that cost Leclerc a victory in Spain and the strategy error that dropped him from first to fourth in Monaco have both cost Red Bull victories.
Leclerc was hopeful that the new car upgrade would allow them to compete for victory against Red Bull.
He was excited for tomorrow. Tyre management is something that's important here. Since we brought the upgrade, our race pace has gone up.
As an engine problem in the garage meant he left the pits late and did not have the benefit of a slipstream on his final lap, Perez felt that pole could have slipped through his fingers.
Verstappen had to go out on his own after a technical problem prevented Perez from towing him.
Verstappen said that the start of the lap was good, but then he made a few small mistakes. Being second and third gives us a good chance to win tomorrow.
Over a long run our car should be quite good because we seem to lack a little on the one lap.
Lewis Hamilton was the best of the rest, but George Russell was the best of the rest for Mercedes.
Wolff said that Hamilton was trying an experiment that didn't work.
Hamilton was cleared of any wrongdoing after being investigated for driving too slowly during the second part of qualification.
The Alpine of Fernando Alonso was ninth, followed by Alpha Tauri's Yuki Tsunoda.
Lando and Daniel were both in the top 12. The younger British man was behind the Mercedes when Hamilton won the race.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
