Data reveals where Charles Leclerc took unstoppable fourth straight Azerbaijan GP pole
Charles Leclerc will start on pole for the fourth year in a row at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc has taken his fourth consecutive pole position on the Baku City Circuit.
The Ferrari driver beat Oscar Piastri by more than three tenths with a brilliant lap, unchallenged by any of his rivals.
Azerbaijan GP data shows how Charles Leclerc took fourth straight Baku pole
Charles Leclerc was the fastest driver in qualifying for the Azerbaijan GP. The Monégasque driver took his fourth pole position in Azerbaijan with a +0.321s advantage over Oscar Piastri.
Ferrari’s SF-24 made the difference in the slow corners of Sector 2, with Leclerc outpacing Oscar in Turn 16 on his final attempt. Something Piastri was not happy with, describing his lap as “messy” as he lost some valuable time in that final decisive corner before the long main straight.
Ferrari has been the fastest team all weekend. Charles Leclerc finished P1 and Carlos Sainz in P3 leaving the Italian team in a great position to fight for the double podium in Sunday’s race.
However, the gap was not as wide in reality as the timesheets showed. Ferrari has the advantage, yes, but Red Bull and McLaren on their ideal laps would not have been that far behind the Maranello team.
If we look at the best sectors, we can see that the times are quite spread among the field against what we’re used to seeing at other tracks.
However, Charles Leclerc’s performance in Sector 2 has been decisive to be superior to the rest of the drivers in Baku.
On the other hand, in terms of top speeds, we can see that the overtaking played a very important role. For example, Oscar Piastri was four kilometres per hour slower than Lando Norris.
But this is because Oscar had clean air in all his flying laps. Lando in Q1 took advantage of Carlos Sainz’s slipstream on his second of the three attempts he made.
Charles Leclerc will be looking to break his Baku ‘curse’ tomorrow after finally breaking the one he had been carrying in Monaco until this season. Ferrari also looks solid on race pace as Friday’s long runs showed.
But Oscar Piastri will be looking to fight as hard as possible to try and close the points gap to Lando Norris who will start the race from 17th. The Australian driver has a great opportunity to make a statement and set the Papaya team back on fire.
After allowing their drivers to fight freely at Monza, the discourse for this race changed – quite logically – to benefit Lando Norris’ interests in his fight for the World Championship.
But with Lando starting so far back on Sunday, everything can change again if the Briton does not make a good comeback.
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