Sawt Falasteen - Leclerc hopes to finally capitalise on pole in Baku

The Monegasque driver, who triumphed at Monaco in May and won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza two weeks ago, continued his supreme current form to beat McLaren's Oscar Piastri by three-tenths of a second.

Despite three previous poles in 2021, 2022 and 2023, Leclerc has yet to taste victory in Azerbaijan.

In a dramatic qualifying session with title-chasing Lando Norris, in the second McLaren, eliminated in Q1 in 17th place, Leclerc clocked a best lap of one minute and 43.365 on his final run to take his career 26th pole.

Series leader and three-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who leads Norris by 62 points, qualified only sixth.

"It’s amazing to be on pole," said Leclerc.

- 'The pace was there' -

"The car felt really good and everything was great. It's one of my favourite tracks. I really like it. It hasn’t been an easy weekend because of my crash in FP1.

"It didn’t make me lose confidence, as I knew that the pace was there, but you’ve got to be back up to speed.

"In Q3 and qualifying, it was all about trying to stay away from the walls and on the last lap I went for it a bit more - and the lap time came very nicely."

His Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz was third in the second Ferrari ahead of Sergio Perez of Red Bull and Mercedes' George Russell.

"Its the best we could hope for," said Leclerc.

"The left side of the grid is a little bit less grippy, so first and third is where you want to start here and hopefully we can play a team game tomorrow to win.

"It's going to be a long race. In the past, we have been very strong in qualifying and struggled a bit in the race, but this year we have a stronger race car -- so I hope we can finally make it tomorrow.

"Tyre management will be a big thing so we’ve got to do a good job again. We did a good job in Monza, but we have to re-set every race we do so this is another race with other issues."

Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz qualified third.

"We had a solid qualifying and we're in a good position. I've never felt 100 per cent hooked up around here in my career and I tend to struggle on this track, but this is a good position. And my race pace seemed strong -- so I think it is all to play for."

Sergio Perez was a strong fourth for Red Bull on a track he enjoys, ahead of George Russell of Mercedes and Verstappen.

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was seventh for Mercedes ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and Argentine new boy Franco Colapinto who out-paced his more experienced Williams team-mate Alex Albon.

E.Qaddoumi--SF-PST