George Russell put Mercedes on pole place for the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Saturday, heading a entrance row shared with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on the Baku City Circuit that ended with championship chief Kimi Antonelli crashing out in Q1 and beginning sixteenth, Formula 1 reported.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took third. The prime three got here from three completely different constructors, establishing a aggressive entrance of the grid for Sunday’s race.
The session’s most consequential second got here when Antonelli — Russell’s teammate and the drivers’ championship chief — crashed within the first phase of qualifying, per Sky Sports. A Q1 exit positioned him sixteenth on the grid, turning what ought to have been an easy weekend for the title chief right into a restoration mission earlier than the race has even began.
Sunday’s race at Baku places Russell within the strongest attainable strategic place, main from the entrance on a avenue circuit the place observe place is effective and the security automotive can reshuffle the order. Antonelli has the tempo to maneuver ahead by means of the sector in Baku.
The championship image heading out of Azerbaijan will rely considerably on how a lot floor every Mercedes driver beneficial properties or concedes relative to the opposite.
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