Leclerc left with mixed feelings after taking P2 in Baku as Russell grabs pole

By Vancouver Television Sports Desk

Charles Leclerc said he was left with mixed feelings after earning pole-adjacent progress in Azerbaijan, qualifying P2 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix despite feeling Ferrari was behind expectations on outright pace. Leclerc set a 1m 43.363s on his final Q3 run at the Baku City Circuit, narrowly beating McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by one thousandth of a second to secure the grid’s second position behind polesitter George Russell.

Russell’s benchmark lap proved significantly stronger, with the Mercedes driver’s Q3 time 0.837s quicker than Leclerc. Leclerc attributed part of the context to Ferrari’s difficulty earlier in the weekend and said that while P2 was encouraging, the performance gap to the pole lap was bigger than planned. He added: “I mean, honestly, it was quite a good lap,” but also said that after comparing his time to Russell, “maybe the lap wasn’t good enough!”

Leclerc also referenced the team’s recovery across the session, noting that after a difficult Friday he had more hope by the time of final practice, where he felt a stronger base for tomorrow. Looking ahead to race day, he suggested Ferrari’s straight-line characteristics were not its strength, while pointing to pace glimpses in FP1 under higher fuel.

Hamilton, sixth in qualifying, offered his perspective on intra-team tow decisions in Q3 after describing the situation as “never looked good” for him. He said that in Q3 he had been ahead of Charles on the opening part of the sequence, but that the plan changed near the end of the session, leaving him “a sitting duck” without a tow, including “not even in the stream of other drivers.”