Formula 1 Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2026 (Saturday race)Formula 1 

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Jimlaad43

Jimlaad43

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A triple header of triple headers to finish the season (currently) begins on the streets of Baku. The race, held on a Saturday due to Azerbaijan's national day of mourning for successfully expelling Armenians from Armenian land within their borders in 2020, is usually an exciting one with overtakes on the massive main straight, the still impressive T2-3 straight and the super close walls ready to snap a corner off. Qualifying is often a lottery of Red Flags, who will navigate their way through best? Isack Hadjar is likely to be back in the Red Bull, so he will have to protect his newly healed wrist from being damaged by the walls this time. Let's see what a proper street circuit is like, not the farce seen in Madrid last time out. It's almost time to dip well below sea level for the AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX!
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Circuit Length
6.003km

First Grand Prix
2016

Number of Laps
51

Fastest lap time
1:43.009 Charles Leclerc (2019)

Race Distance
306.049km

 
It's Thursday then, it's Friday, Saturday, what?
 
Ah yes, the "What if Milosevic found a massive reserve of natural gas in 1991" Grand Prix.
 
Super clipping on and off the track in Baku.
 
The F2 cars have been clocked at around 320kph on the straight... the Astons barely hit 315 in either FP so far.
Frustrated World Cup GIF
 
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-Fred-
The F2 cars have been clocked at around 320kph on the straight... the Astons barely hit 315 in either FP so far.
Frustrated World Cup GIF
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And for context, Hadjar hit the speed trap at 339kph. Gabriele Mini in F2 touched 328kph.
 
George Russell take the pole position at Azerbaijan Grand Prix!
 
StackedMan256
George Russell take the pole position at Azerbaijan Grand Prix!
Click to expand...
Ridiculous lap from him, more than 8 tenths ahead.

Poor performance from Verstappen, only p8, and quite far behind Hadjar.

Kimi will be kicking himself, knowing that there was that much pace in the car.
 
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Yeah, had he didn't hit the wall, he'd would qualified somewhere P2-P6. Will Kimi will pull a Monza on the race tomorrow? I'm not sure, but we'll see how it pans out tomorrow.
 
Great session, and a nice reminder that Baku quali can still be entertaining without 6 red flags 😂
Seems like Max was compromised from Lando's off but that was a mega lap by George, not sure even Kimi would be taking pole from him today.
Kimi just has to be sure he doesn't start a performance skid here like Oscar did last season...and great to see OP back into the top 3 for quali! And a Williams in Q3!
Looking set for a great race tomorrow, cant wait
 
Mercedes’ engine is seriously strong. Even a Williams managed to sneak into the top 10 in qualifying.
 
If the Merc engine is that good, Charles has no chance to keep that P2 tomorrow. Both Piastri and Lando will probably walk all over him in the race. Kimi might also end up in the top 5...Im thinking Max will be a threat too because despite his complaints, he's shown some serious speed throughout the sessions so far. That said, I don't think he'll be on the podium unless something happens with the Mclarens.
 
Massive lap from George. Crikey.

I hope McLaren finds some pace.
 
I'm about to watch my very first F1 race on my own full Sky Sports subscription, in UHD, and on the fancy new TV I got for my Mum and I.

Quali yesterday was a real treat - it looks and sounds amazing!

I kinda wish I'd had this set up before, but I never thought it was worth it - and indeed, I can only justify it now because I'm piggy-backing on my Mum's Sky TV package. At least now I don't have to rely on the abomination that is Now TV - it is (marginally) better than nothing, and we still have it for my Dad. - he gets good use out of it, but I'm convinced that Sky make it deliberately awful to basically compel you to upgrade to Sky.

Roll on the race - Azerbaijan has grown on me, though still not a favourite - but as far as street circuits go, it's an interesting combination of a real challenge for the drivers, and has a couple of decent passing opportunities.
 
It's light's out in Azerbaijan Grand Prix!
 
The Red Bulls seem to be flying.

Meanwhile Antonelli does quite the opposite.
 
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Dang, the Red Bulls are pretty quick. Go Oscar! Run away!
 
I would have expected Antonelli to be in the top 8 by now. Only 2 places up after 7 laps.
 
Looks like George P1 and Max P2 to me. P3 probably one of the McLarens.
 
GlamFM
Looks like George P1 and Max P2 to me. P3 probably one of the McLarens.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't discount Hadjar for P3, he seems right on pace with Max.
 
PaMu1337
I wouldn't discount Hadjar for P3, he seems right on pace with Max.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but he’s on softs. We’ll see how this plays out. Right now I feel like non of the soft runners are in contention for P3 except for Oscar - mainly because he has track position.

Lando seems to be struggling on Mediums though.. so actually no idea 😹🤷‍♂️
 
Seems Red Bull's in a bit of a pickle. Hadjar's Softs seem to be performing better than Max's Mediums, but Hadjar doesn't want to get in front of Max because he's afraid that the both of them will lose time to Piastri.

Personally, I think that the optimum thing at this point is to let Hadjar through and see what happens.

Edit: Aaaaand Alonso retires. Another double-DNF for Aston Martin.
 
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Antonelli is now 9th place in lap 23. Still, he might finish P6-P4 to get the point for his championship.
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Well, Aston Martin team in 2026 season is a joke....
 
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Softs are lasting too long. 😑
 
Freaking finally...

Let's see what Issack can do.

Aaand, nevermind.
 
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Norris not having the best day. I wonder why his pace is so poor.

Ooh, Albon with the SC. 😮
 
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And there goes all strategy for the rest of the race
 
Albon in the wall. Safety car deployed. Possible red flag situation?
 
Did Albon have some kind of brake failure? Seemed quite intense for just a simple lockup
 
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