Up until today no driver had qualified on pole twice in Baku, but Ferrari's Charles Leclerc has broken that record, qualifying ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Perez (who was fastest in FP3 earlier today). All the drivers used the P Zero Red soft tyres from start to finish of qualifying.

The start of qualifying was delayed by 15 minutes and there was a further delay caused by a red flag in Q1, with track temperatures dropping progressively throughout the sessions. By the end, ambient temperatures were down to 26 degrees, with track temperatures of 37 degrees.

The Pirelli Pole Position Award was presented by Mick Doohan, the Australian motorbike legend who won five consecutive titles between 1994 and 1998, with 54 wins and 58 poles from the 137 MotoGP races that he contested. His son Jack is a leading contender in Formula 2, currently sixth in the standings.

The Grand Prix is a clear one-stopper, under normal circumstances. But there are two ways to approach it, and also a high safety car probability, which could turn things around entirely.

Charles Leclerc produced yet another of his special “Leclerc laps." The Monegasque took his sixth pole position of the season from eight races, taking his total to 15, which puts him equal third with Felipe Massa on the all-time Ferrari list. He is also the first driver to be quickest in qualifying at the tricky Azerbaijan track for a second time. It was Ferrari's third Baku pole and its 236th in total. Carlos Sainz will start from fourth on the second row of the grid tomorrow.

Both drivers got their F1-75s through to the final grid-deciding part of qualifying without any difficulty, with Carlos going quickest on the first run in 1'41"814. All the leading drivers then pitted for a new set of Softs before going out for a final attempt. Carlos was unable to improve on his last lap, whereas Charles and the two Red Bull drivers did. Leclerc produced a truly perfect lap to post a time of 1'41"359, almost three tenths quicker than the second placed driver.

Tomorrow, Leclerc will be looking to convert pole into the win, while Carlos will be aiming for the podium. Tyre management will be key to achieving both these goals, while Charles will be working to keep his pursuers outside the DRS activation zone. Tonight, the team will be assessing all the variables as part of its race preparation prior to tomorrow's 51 lap race.

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Qualifying
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Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:41.359	132.486 mph
2	Perez		Red Bull	1:41.641	0.282
3	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:41.706	0.347
4	Sainz		Ferrari		1:41.814	0.455
5	Russell		Mercedes	1:42.712	1.353
6	Gasly		AlphaTauri	1:42.845	1.486
7	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:42.924	1.565
8	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:43.056	1.697
9	Vettel		Aston Martin	1:43.091	1.732
10	Alonso		Alpine		1:43.173	1.814
11	Norris		McLaren		1:43.398	
12	Ricciardo	McLaren		1:43.574	
13	Ocon		Alpine		1:43.585	
14	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:43.790	
15	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:44.444	
16	Magnussen	Haas		1:44.643	
17	Albon		Williams	1:44.719	
18	Latifi		Williams	1:45.367	
19	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:45.371	
20	Schumacher	Haas		1:45.775