F1 Qualifying Results: SIX red flags cause chaos as Oscar Piastri crashes out in Baku

F1 championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed out of qualifying as Max Verstappen claimed pole position in a record-breaking qualifying session with SIX red flags.

As drivers fell around him, the Dutchman came through to take pole for Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz taking a surprise second behind him.

In a qualifying session that saw the most red flags ever, Liam Lawson put his Racing Bull in third, with the two Mercedes drivers rounding out the top five.

Lando Norris was not one of the drivers to crash out, but could only put in a time good enough for seventh in Q3.

Drivers were battling extreme winds during the session, with gusts of around 50mph battering the circuit, in complete contrast to Friday's conditions for the first two practice sessions of the weekend.

There were three red flags thrown during Q1 in a highly disrupted session, with Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto all crashing. All four of those were eliminated from qualifying, along with Esteban Ocon. Then, in Q2, Ollie Bearman caused a fourth red flag of the first 25 minutes of qualifying, crashing his Haas and ending his participation in qualifying.

Charles Leclerc became the fifth driver to crash out of qualifying at the start of Q3, skidding into the barriers at turn 15, bringing out a fifth red flag and completing a dismal day for Ferrari after Lewis Hamilton had earlier exited Q2.

And then, when we thought the drama was over, championship leader Piastri went slamming into the barriers, ending his qualifying and throwing the race for pole position wide open. Plus, it made for a SIXTH red flag in an extraordinary qualifying session.

Here are all the results from qualifying at the Azerbaijan GP.

How does F1 Qualifying work?

The qualifying session is split into three finite windows, which provide a dramatic prelude to Sunday's race.

The bottom five drivers are eliminated at the end of Q1, with a further five eliminated after Q2.

Then, Q3 gives us a shootout between the remaining 10 drivers in the battle for positions at the front of the grid.

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Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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