Sawt Falasteen - Russell takes pole for Azerbaijan GP, Antonelli crashes out

Russell dominated Thursday's two practice sessions and, in spite of running second to Max Verstappen in Friday's third practice, defied the strong wind to finish top of the leaderboard in each section of qualifying with a best time at the end of 1 minute 42.526 seconds.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished 0.837sec behind and will line up alongside Russell on the front row on Saturday in Baku.

"It's been a while, it definitely feels good," said Russell.

"Probably the biggest margin of my career. The lap felt really sweet, car's been feeling really great this weekend.

"On a track like this where you can hug it, it feels amazing. I was feeling good. Perfect lap at the end."

McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Red Bull's Isack Hadjar fill the second row of the grid ahead of a British pair of world champions -- Lando Norris, in the second McLaren, was fifth fastest with Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton in sixth.

Pierre Gasly (Alpine), four-time champoion Max Verstappen (Red Bull), Carlos Sainz (Williams) and Franco Colapinto (Alpine) rounded out the top 10.

The biggest talking point other than Russell's outstanding performance was the sight of his 20-year-old Antonelli clipping the wall in Q1 and picking up a puncture, his first mistake since crashing in final practice in Australia.

The 20-year-old Italian wanted to continue but race engineer Pete Bonnington overruled him, telling him it was a "fairly big job" and to come into the pits.

It was the first time this season that Antonelli, who is romping away at the top of the championship with an 81-point lead over Russell, failed to reach Q3.

He had already qualified for Q2 but was unable to take part so will line up in 16th.

It is unlikely to deter him. Three weeks ago in Monza he came from 19th to take the chequered flag.

The grand prix is being run on Saturday, rather than the usual Sunday, because September 27 is a national day of remembrance in Azerbaijan.

X.Habash--SF-PST