F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Who takes pole position in Baku?

| Getty Images George Russell set the pace during both FP1 and FP2 on Thursday at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, prompting the official Formula 1 website to wonder if he is already out of striking distance for Friday’s qualifying session. But can he roll Thursday’s command performance into the qualifying hour, or will one of his rivals catch him for pole position at the difficult Baku City Circuit? Qualifying gets underway at 8:00 a.m. Eastern on Friday morning, so check back throughout the session to see how it unfolds. And remember, the best way to follow all the action is through the new SB Nation app! The new game chat feature loads and runs so smoothly, making it a fantastic experience during qualifying sessions and races. Download the SB Nation app now for iOS or Android and join our F1 community (via the Communities page) to see the new live game chat for qualifying on Friday, and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday. Here is the qualifying thread for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Azerbaijan GP provisional starting grid Here is the provisional starting grid for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which will be filled in throughout the qualifying session: RowPositionDriverTeamPositionDriverTeam Row 112 Row 234 Row 356 Row 478 Row 5910 Row 61112 Row 71314 Row 81516 Row 91718 Row 101920 Row 112122 Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying Here is how the qualifying hour unfolded. All updates are in Eastern time. Q1 8:02: Qualifying will begin at 4:04 p.m. local time, or 8:04 a.m. Eastern. 7:59: And … the start of qualifying has been delayed. No start time yet from race control. 7:53: Russell, Verstappen, and Antonelli the three drivers predicted for pole position during the pre-qualifying show. 7:52: Commentators on the pre-qualifying show raising the spectre of traffic here in qualifying. Tire preparation is also going to be critical during this session. What happened in FP3? In FP3, one of Russell’s rivals fought back. None other than Max Verstappen topped the timing sheets during the third and final hour of practice. Here are the results from FP3: FP3 CLASSIFICATION Verstappen fastest heading into qualifying #F1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/PaLzhIsbbJ — Formula 1 (@F1) September 25, 2026

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