The Ferraris left the pits ahead of Red Bull for the final qualifier in 2m30. Leclerc set a personal best first sector, lost time in the middle part of the lap, but then set the fastest run of the session in the final sector to grab provisional pole with 1m05.013s. Verstappen, meanwhile, had missed his personal bests in sectors one and two – although his slowest time in S1 was still 0.07s ahead of Leclerc before conceding 0.03s to Ferrari in S3. The Red Bull driver then grabbed pole position for the sprint race away from his rival, a personal best final sector just 0.002s slower than Leclerc to set a benchmark of 1m04.984. Explaining his lap, Verstappen knew he had lost time early on and therefore had to be “in a good position” and he did so aggressively with the limits of the track in the final corners. Verstappen said: “It was a bit difficult. I think the long wait [after the red flag] it’s never amazing. “Then we went outside. My turn 1 and turn 3 weren’t the best, so I knew the rest of the lap had to be pretty decent here for me to do something. Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18 Photo: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images “And I think especially the last sector was a lot better than what I had done before, and more on the limit of course with the limits of the track. “It was good. It was close. I knew it was going to be close, but of course, it’s always nice to be ahead.” Read also: A second pole in three races comes after Verstappen asked Red Bull to give him a faster car for qualifying in Azerbaijan, having watched Leclerc take four poles in a row between Miami and Baku. This one-lap advantage combined with the race pace of the RB18 underlined Verstappen’s confidence for the sprint contest. He continued: “I think we have a great car normally. Qualifying is not our strongest point. “Well, I just hope of course, we get a clean turn 1, a good breakaway and from there anything can happen. But I feel confident with the car we have.”
