F1 in Azerbaijan: This sport is my red flag

A tailwind caught out Alpine's Pierre Gasly in Q1, and his rookie teammate Franco Colapinto hit the wall at the same corner shortly after. Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg also crashed, although not badly enough that he couldn't return to the pit under his own steam. As mentioned, Hamilton went no further than Q2, and Haas rookie Oliver Bearman was responsible for one of those six red flags when he collided with a wall.

Q3 was interrupted by light rain, just after Carlos Sainz had set a fantastic time in the other Williams. Had more rain arrived, Sainz would surely have started on pole position for Sunday's race. But things cleared up enough for the other drivers to complete some laps.

Or try to, at least. With only four times on the board, Leclerc crashed heavily at turn 15, the third time in recent years. Championship leader Oscar Piastri also found the wall in his McLaren, putting the pair in ninth and eighth for the race. Lando Norris, in the other McLaren, was only able to secure seventh on the grid—like Canada and Monza, the McLaren does not have an advantage at low-downforce circuits.

On the other hand, cold temperatures and low downforce play well to the Mercedes' strength, and its drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli would start fourth and fifth. As we saw at Monza, Red Bull has unlocked some speed on tracks with these characteristics, too, and Yuki Tsunoda put in one of his best qualifying performances all year to grab sixth for the start.

Liam Lawson, who started the season at Red Bull before swapping seats with Tsunoda to move to the Racing Bulls, had an even better day, snagging third. Sainz would still start on the front row, but next to Max Verstappen, who demonstrated his mastery of car control in changeable conditions and uncertain grip to get pole position.

Almost no chaos in the race

If Saturday was bad for McLaren, Sunday was worse. Piastri jumped the start, then got swamped on the grid after his anti-stall system kicked in. He made it as far as turn 5 before locking up his front tires and finding the wall, heavily. The championship leader would watch the rest of the race from behind the crash fencing.