F1 Qualifying Results: 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix positions and times from Baku

George Russell took pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix by nearly a full second in Friday afternoon's qualifying session.

Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri will start second and third respectively, but their lap times were more than eight tenths of a second slower than the utterly dominant Russell's best time.

The door was blown wide open for the Brit to have a productive weekend earlier in the session when his team-mate, championship leader Kimi Antonelli, hit the wall in Turn 1 during Q1 to end his session and put him 16th on the grid for Saturday's race.

Max Verstappen had looked like the closest challenger to the Mercedes drivers throughout practice and the earlier parts of qualifying, but caught a yellow flag at the worst possible moment on his final flying lap – having to back right out and landing just eighth.

Remarkably, Carlos Sainz put his Williams through into Q3 for the first time this season, eventually qualifying ninth, with his team-mate Alex Albon 13th.

F1 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Qualifying Results

Changes to F1 Qualifying in 2026

There are a couple of changes to the way qualifying works this year, not quite as sweeping as the new technical regulations.

Firstly we now have 22 cars on the grid, so instead of five cars exiting after Q1 and Q2, we will have six being eliminated. That still leaves 10 for the pole shootout in Q3.

The other notable change lies in the timings - Q3 now gets an extra minute and lasts for 13 rather than 12.

READ MORE: Azerbaijan GP track safety fears delays qualifying session

Written by

Graham Shaw - Consultant Editor

Digital sports leader with 30 years of senior level experience running global brands. Built sportinglife.com to be a behemoth in the UK as well as being in charge of the Planet Sport network of sites including planetf1.com, football365.com, teamtalk.com and planetrugby.com. Then grew goal.com to be the world's biggest soccer website in 18 languages and 37 territories. Was GM of Portals for Perform Group (now DAZN) with overall responsibility for sportingnews.com, spox.de and voetbalzone.nl.

View full biography