Amended F1 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix starting grid with all late penalties applied by the FIA

The grid is set for this afternoon's 2026 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku with George Russell on pole for Mercedes.

The 28-year-old British star produced a blistering lap in Qualifying on Friday to blow his rivals out of the water in Baku.

Championship leader and team-mate Kimi Antonelli meanwhile will start way down in P16 after putting his Mercedes into the wall in Q2. So Antonelli's 81-point advantage in the Drivers' standings may shrink a little later today.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc starts P2 on the front row with Russell, but he was more than eight tenths of a second behind the dominant Mercedes star.

It was a miserable session for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and four-time world champion Max Verstappen, who qualified P6 and P8 respectively.

There are amendments to the grid with penalties in play, notably for Williams star Carlos Sainz. He drops five places from P9 to P14 for failing to slow under yellow flags, spoiling what had been a much improved showing in his newly-upgraded car.

There is more misery meanwhile at Aston Martin, with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso dropping a combined 50 places for changing power unit components. They will start P21 and P22 respectively.

Before Friday we already knew that Alonso would be penalised 25 places for taking a fifth engine, a fifth turbocharger and ninth Power Unit Ancillary Component (PU-ANC), and that Stroll would drop 20 places for taking on a sixth turbocharger, a seventh energy store, a sixth control electronics unit and an eighth PU-ANC.

Then on Friday Alonso was given an extra five-place drop for taking a new energy store.

Cadillac's Sergio Perez will start P20 after being handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding McLaren's Oscar Piastri in Qualifying.

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F1 Starting Grid - 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

The final starting grid, subject to final confirmation by the FIA, is as follows:

* Carlos Sainz drops 5 places for failing to slow for yellow flags in Qualifying.

** Sergio Perez drops 3 places for impeding Oscar Piastri in Qualifying.

*** Lance Stroll drops 20 places for taking power unit components outside of his allotted allowance.

**** Fernando Alonso drops 30 places for taking power unit components outside of his allotted allowance.

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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.

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