Charles Leclerc nicks Azerbaijan F1 GP pole from Pérez and Verstappen

Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari on pole place for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, whereas Lewis Hamilton faces a stewards’ investigation for “driving unnecessarily slowly”.

Leclerc, who trails chief Max Verstappen by 9 factors within the championship standings, bounced again from his Monaco distress a fortnight in the past to blow away his rivals. The Monégasque noticed off Sergio Pérez, who took benefit of Leclerc’s flat-footed Ferrari group in Monte Carlo to assert his third profession win, by 0.282sec.

Verstappen, the world champion, strains up in third, one spot forward of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. George Russell out-qualified his Mercedes teammate Hamilton for the fifth time in eight rounds this season. Russell will begin fifth on Sunday, two locations forward of Hamilton, who might drop additional down the sphere if he’s penalised for his qualifying misdemeanour.

Hamilton, who completed a hefty 1.6sec behind Leclerc and two-tenths of a second adrift of Russell, appeared to delay his fellow Englishman Lando Norris within the ultimate minutes of Q2. While Hamilton progressed to the top-10 shoot-out, Norris was eradicated and completed eleventh.

Norris’ race engineer Will Joseph mentioned to his driver of Hamilton: “He is the lead car, he will get in trouble. Don’t let him play silly buggers.”

After claiming his sixth pole of the season and fourth in succession, Leclerc mentioned: “All poles feel good but this one I did not expect because I thought the Red Bulls were stronger. But the last lap came together and I am extremely happy. I am really excited for tomorrow.”

Hamilton, who heads into Sunday’s race 75 factors behind the championship chief, Verstappen, has endured a attempting weekend right here and was warned by his group to not drive slowly on his out-lap. He responded by saying: “I don’t know what you expect from me, man, sometimes.”

Hamilton has been summoned to the stewards at 8.20pm native time (5.20pm) and faces a doable grid drop if he’s discovered responsible of a guidelines breach.

Hamilton’s Mercedes group proceed to wrestle with porpoising right here. “The car is bottoming a dangerous amount,” mentioned Hamilton as he hit speeds approaching 220mph.

Q1 was red-flagged with two and a half minutes remaining after Lance Stroll crashed out. Only moments after thudding right into a barrier, earlier than reversing out of bother, the Canadian driver hit the wall for a second time.

Stroll carried an excessive amount of velocity by means of the second bend, shedding management of his Aston Martin and accumulating the tyre barrier. Stroll was compelled to park his wounded machine as race director Niels Wittich deployed the crimson flag.

Quick Guide

How do I join sport breaking information alerts?

Show

• Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhones or the Google Play retailer on Android telephones by looking for ‘The Guardian’.
• If you have already got the Guardian app, be sure to’re on the latest model.
• In the Guardian app, faucet the yellow button on the backside proper, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.
• Turn on sport notifications.

A ten-minute delay ensued for monitor repairs earlier than a frantic sprint to keep away from falling on the first hurdle. Haas’s Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi of Williams had been eradicated.

The struggling Mick Schumacher additionally failed to enhance and will line up in twentieth and final place for the race.

Tony Dodgins’ report back to observe

I’ve tried to offer all types of stories to all of you latest news today 2022 by means of this web site and you will like all this information very a lot as a result of all of the information we at all times give on this information is at all times there. It is on trending subject and regardless of the newest information was

it was at all times our effort to succeed in you that you just preserve getting the newest information and you at all times preserve getting the data of stories by means of us totally free and additionally let you know individuals. Give that no matter data associated to different forms of information will probably be

made accessible to all of you so that you’re at all times related with the information, keep forward within the matter and preserve getting today news all forms of information totally free until at the moment with the intention to get the information by getting it. Always take two steps ahead