How Azerbaijan GP qualifying broke a pink flag F1 report

It took virtually two hours to resolve the grid for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, because of the six pink flags that contributed to a stop-start qualifying. Whereas the Baku Metropolis Circuit is thought for its ravenous partitions, the better amount of spills largely demonstrated the problem of the situations.

These six pink flags produced a brand new qualifying report, beating the 5 seen in final 12 months's qualifying in Sao Paulo and 2022's Imola spherical.

Baku is called the Metropolis of Winds, however the altering path of gusts across the circuit proved to be unsettling. As Lando Norris defined, it was “fairly unbelievable. I want everybody might perceive how troublesome it was with the wind, as a result of I'd say half the crashes you noticed at the moment had been most likely due to wind”.

Others had been, after all, driver error – the closeness of the partitions imply that after you are dedicated to a nook, that is it. There is no security web of run-off until a driver aborts their turn-in actually early. Let's recap…

This was the primary look of the pink flag on Saturday: Albon was gearing up for a lap in Q1 and, instantly after getting the ball rolling, he put the steering in for Flip 1 a fraction too quickly and proceeded to clip the within wall along with his entrance left. The steering arm instantly broke, and he managed to corral his Williams to the facet of the highway on the pit exit line.

Albon says that he had anticipated much less grip and had tried to compensate for it with a fractionally early turn-in, and thus was stunned when the circuit was far more rubbered in than anticipated.

“It is my fault, no excuses actually, only a bit amateurish,” Albon remarked. “I feel I used to be first out on observe, so after I went into Flip 1 on the primary lap, it was actually inexperienced. After which I got here across the second time and the grip distinction was big and I used to be anticipating the entrance to slip a bit bit. It usually slides a bit and also you form of slide previous the wall. You virtually time it that you simply get a little bit of understeer as you get near the wall.

“However it did not understeer, so it is clumsy and irritating. However yeah, we had a fast automotive. I feel I have been prime eight just about each session and I have been feeling good with the automotive all weekend, so it is annoying to exit in what needs to be a Q3 automotive.”

Oscar Piastri had been left and not using a time to his identify throughout Q1, however managed to successfully guide his place in Q2 simply two seconds earlier than the second pink flag; Nico Hulkenberg had locked up at Flip 4 and caught his nostril into the Tecpro barrier.

Because the German went straight on at a comparatively low velocity, he might reverse and trundle again to the pits sans entrance wing, however the pink flag was maybe swiftly waved for the incident.

Hulkenberg was eradicated in seventeenth, regardless of going out once more with a brand new nostril to enhance on his remaining run.

“I struggled with entrance locking much more than every other session,” the Sauber driver defined. “And that actually form of made all of the distinction. I feel not one lap with none entrance locking someplace and it is fairly pricey round right here. So, yeah, fairly annoying and irritating.”

There was already a yellow flag down at Flip 4, when Pierre Gasly received caught out by a gust of wind and escaped to the run-off. Whereas the Frenchman was making an attempt to extricate himself from the run-off, his Alpine team-mate Franco Colapinto got here barrelling by means of to set himself up for the right-hander.

Alonso had simply dumped Colapinto into the underside 5, and the Argentine's probabilities had the second nail affixed to their coffin as he clouted the wall at Flip 4 simply because the chequered flag had been produced. Colapinto misplaced the entrance finish by means of Flip 4, washed vast, and clouted the Tecpro barrier along with his rear. It then bounced the entrance finish into the wall to double the injury.

It was a close to carbon copy of Colapinto's FP1 shunt in Baku final 12 months, the place he appeared to simply carry an excessive amount of velocity into the nook and misplaced management on the brakes. That mentioned, Norris pointed to Flip 4 as being one of many worse corners for gusts: “Lots of people locked up. It appears like one of many worst corners I've ever pushed in my life. Simply because the tailwind is, I do not know, 50km/h or one thing. And it is likely to be that on the following lap it is 10, and you're feeling you'll be able to go a bit faster. You go faster the following lap, and also you're within the wall. It is very troublesome.”

Incident 4: Ollie Bearman

Though Oliver Bearman said that wind was a think about his shunt on the exit of Flip 2, he was prepared to simply accept the blame for his incident – Q2's sole pink flag after a bumper harvest of three in Q1.

Bearman took Flip 2 as regular, and swept to the apex earlier than taking the road near the wall. The rear finish stepped out and, though the glancing blow to his rear-right wheel was fairly small, it was sufficient to knock the trackrod out of service and left the Briton crabbing alongside the run to Flip 3 earlier than electing to cease.

“We have been quick all weekend after which I did a foolish mistake in qualifying,” Bearman rued post-session. “It was simply tremendous windy on the market and I simply received caught out by it.”

With 4 consecutive poles across the Baku circuit, Leclerc hoped to make it 5 on the bounce. Ferrari's tempo had appeared good within the early phases of qualifying however, whereas Hamilton was caught out in Q2 and was eradicated regardless of anticipating to contend for pole, Leclerc was left as the only horse within the race by Q3.

The wind was augmented by a lightweight, barely perceptible rain bathe, however it was sufficient to make the observe floor really feel barely greasy. Leclerc was heading round Baku's outdated city and nearly to hitch the coastal Neftchilar Avenue straight, however locked up at Flip 15 and dumped his Ferrari into the Tecpro barrier.

Underneath braking, the left entrance on Leclerc's Ferrari was noticeably under-rotating and never providing the stopping energy wanted to get by means of the left-hander unscathed. His hopes of a fifth pole in Azerbaijan had evaporated.

Leclerc did not really feel that the troublesome situations had been the explanation for his shunt, however quite Ferrari's determination to open Q3 on the mediums. “Q1 and all of the laps on the tender felt a lot better. Then we went on the medium, which we had stored as a result of we thought it was the perfect tyre, and at the moment with these temperatures it was simply unimaginable for me to modify them on.

“And troublesome situations or not, I do not assume that that is the explanation – I feel we had been simply missing plenty of tempo on the medium. I used to be most likely seven or eight tenths off earlier than the error and I used to be pushing like loopy.”

Incident 6: Oscar Piastri

Piastri would not make many high-profile errors, however the Australian got here a cropper at Flip 3 with just below 4 minutes left on the clock. Whereas opening a flying lap on tender tyres, Piastri missed the apex for the third 90-degree left-hander and his McLaren escaped from the racing line to type a symbiotic relationship with the other barrier.

“I feel tried a bit too laborious in Flip 3,” Piastri siad. “I have never truly checked out what I did otherwise, as a result of I did not really feel like I did that a lot otherwise. However, you already know, a tiny bit could make a large distinction.”

Neither Norris nor Verstappen had been capable of get their flying laps in, which left provisional poleman Carlos Sainz on prime by means of the remaining pink flag – however the Spaniard was finally deposed by Verstappen on the shut of the session.