Russell celebrates ‘perfect lap’ as he takes pole for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku
Image accompanying the official F1 announcement.George Russell has celebrated what he described as “the perfect lap” after taking pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the Baku City Circuit. Russell set an unbeatable lap time of 1m 42.526s in Qualifying, defeating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.837s for pole.
F1’s official qualifying report indicates Russell topped every segment and improved further with each attempt in Q3, despite close pressure from Scuderia Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren. Russell’s bid for P1 came with extra openness after his Mercedes team mate Kimi Antonelli was unable to continue after an error in Q1, leaving the fight for pole wide and tightly contested heading into the final qualifying phase.
Russell’s comments also reflected that Qualifying had been disrupted at times, with incidents leading to yellow flags that affected other drivers’ laps. He said he largely avoided the worst of that disruption and added that a gap behind Isack Hadjar helped him use a slipstream on the back straight to complete his fastest run.
Looking ahead to race day, Russell said he felt Mercedes was in a strong position to compete for the win, while acknowledging the unpredictability of Baku. He specifically noted that Leclerc would be motivated for an aggressive start at Turn 1 and said Russell still felt confident about racing for victory.
Reporting source: F1 official update