Photo via BBC Sport

Russell takes pole in Baku as Antonelli out after hitting wall

Mercedes driver George Russell dominated qualifying at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, claiming pole position by a massive margin of 0.837 seconds over Charles Leclerc. Meanwhile, his teammate and title leader Kimi Antonelli suffered an early crash at Turn One, eliminating the Italian from the opening session and leaving him to start sixteenth.

Oscar Piastri secured the third spot on the grid, followed by Isack Hadjar in fourth and Lando Norris in fifth. Lewis Hamilton qualified sixth ahead of Pierre Gasly and Max Verstappen, whose final run was disrupted when Norris ran off track.

Further down the order, Carlos Sainz delivered Williams their first top-ten qualifying performance of the year after the team introduced a lighter chassis.

Up nextFormula 1· 2h ago

F1 Bahrain GP in Malaysia: Antonelli recovers from tough Friday to top FP3