Lando Norris 17th as Charles Leclerc takes Azerbaijan GP pole

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row as Lando Norris suffered a blow to his hopes of gaining ground on title rival Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.

Norris, who is trying to close a 62-point gap to Verstappen over the final eight races of the year, encountered yellow flags on his final lap in the first session and faces a difficult Sunday.

He qualified 17th, but will start 16th because Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who qualified 13th, has been disqualified from qualifying for a technical infringement.

Verstappen is in better shape but could still manage only sixth fastest as Red Bull continued to struggle for pace compared to their rivals.

Verstappen’s problems – his team-mate Sergio Perez was two places ahead of him in fourth place – should have provided Norris a perfect opportunity to capitalise.

The Briton’s team-mate Oscar Piastri qualified second to Leclerc and ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

But Norris’ difficulties in the first session mean he will be trying to limit the damage rather than inflict it on the Dutchman.

Leclerc, who was 0.321 seconds quicker than Piastri, will be going for his second win in a row after victory in Ferrari’s home Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

But despite his unmatched pace over one lap in Baku, he has never won a grand prix around the streets of the city on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

“In the past we have been struggling on race pace but this year we are better in the races so I am hopeful we can finally do it tomorrow,” Leclerc said.

Leclerc has had an incident-packed weekend, crashing in first practice on Friday and then suffering problems with his car in the second session, two problems that cost him about half his usual running time on the first day of the weekend.

“It is one of my favourite tracks. I really like it,” Leclerc said, adding that it had “not been an easy weekend”.

He said: “I was a bit not worried and I knew we had to make up some time, but the pace was always there and in qualifying it was all about trying to stay as far as possible from the walls and then in the last lap I went for it a bit more and the lap time came very nicely.”

Mercedes driver George Russell qualified fifth, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton seventh, ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

Franco Colapinto took ninth for Williams, ahead of British-born Thai Alex Albon, an impressive performance from the Argentine on only his second outing for Williams after being drafted in to replace the sacked American Logan Sargeant a race ago.