Sports writing Apr (EFE).- Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who will start first this Sunday at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the fourth of the Formula One World Cup, which takes place on the urban circuit of Baku, the capital of the country , will also do it this Saturday in the sprint; in which the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) will start second and the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) will do so from fifth and eighth place, respectively.
Leclerc, who ended up crashing into the wall -without physical or qualifying consequences- in his last attempt, was the best in the reduced qualification (‘sprint shoot-out’) for the first of the six sprints that will take place this year; by covering the 6,003 meters of the track in the Azerbaijani capital in one minute, 41 seconds and 697 thousandths, 179 less than ‘Czech’.
The Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), leader of the World Cup -with fifteen points ahead of ‘Czech’, who is second- and who aspires to achieve a third title in a row, stayed 443 thousandths of a second behind Leclerc and will start third, next to Englishman George Russell (Mercedes), from the second row.
Sainz starts fifth at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Sainz, who was almost six tenths behind his teammate, will start fifth, from the third row, next to the other Mercedes, that of the seven-time English world champion Lewis Hamilton; sixth in the ‘mini-timed’ this Saturday.
Alonso, third in the World Cup -24 points behind Verstappen-, and who was one second and seven tenths behind the Monegasque, will start eighth in the sprint.
The Asturian double world champion, who finished on the podium in his first three races with Aston Martin -in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia- and already has 101 ‘drawers’ in F1, was three and a half seconds behind Leclerc’s time and He will start from eighth place, one place ahead of his new teammate, the Canadian Lance Stroll; who, like him, again hinted at problems with the DRS of his car.
Sprint format, with distribution of points
The new sprint format, which will be used again in Austria, Belgium, Qatar, the United States and Brazil, does not affect Sunday’s race at all, whose starting grid was decided in qualifying on Friday. It will award points to the first eight: the first will add eight; the second, seven; the third, six; and so, successively, until the eighth, which will add one to his box in the World Cup.
The sprint is scheduled for a third of the route on Sunday: that is, 17 laps for a little over a hundred kilometres. And it will start at half past five in the afternoon (half past three in Spanish peninsular time. 1:30 p.m. GMT).
The reduced timed was played in the same way as the ‘classic’, with three elimination rounds, but lasting twelve, ten and eight minutes; instead of 18, fifteen and twelve. In Q1 -which ended half a minute before time, with a red flag, due to the accident, without major consequences, of the American Logan Sargeant (Williams) and in Q2 all rolled, as required, with medium tyres.
In Q3 everyone did it, obligatorily, with the soft ones.
Leclerc, dominates Q1 and Q3
Leclerc, despite touching the wall in Baku -the fourth longest circuit on the calendar- dominated the ‘sprint shoot-out’ by setting the best time in Q3. The driver from the principality of the Côte d’Azur had been the fastest in Q1, before exchanging places with Verstappen in the second round – which the new idol of the Netherlands dominated.
In the decisive act, Sainz’s teammate was the best, ahead of ‘Checo’, with a victory and another three podiums, the most successful driver in the six editions in which, to date, Baku has hosted a Grand Prix.
Alonso will start, in search of points, from eighth place, in the fourth row; in which he will be accompanied by the Thai Alexander Albon (Williams).
Stroll will start ninth, from the fifth row, next to Englishman Lando Norris (McLaren).