After a 4 week hiatus, F1 is finally back in business. With that, it looks like Ferrari is as well. We’ve had three races until now and in none of them, the Prancing Horse has managed a podium finish. The upcoming Sunday in Baku could change that, though, after the exploits Charles Leclerc has shown in the qualifying. It is not much of an improvement over the timing he put up last year, but it was certainly enough to keep Max Verstappen at bay once again.

The 2023 Azerbaijan GP is the first of the season to go ahead with the revised schedule for the Sprint Race weekends. The qualifying for the main race has shifted to Friday, and that has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Maranello team. Leclerc has completed his hat-trick of pole positions in Azerbaijan after a hard-fought qualifying against Verstappen.

Charles Leclerc improves his timing by a margin from last year

Last year, Ferrari was brilliant in qualifying on various tracks. Charles bagged a number of pole positions only to throw them away during the main race owing to the lack of proper race pace. Baku was one of those venues where the Monegasque managed a pole position and, against all odds, repeated that today.

However, his timing has only improved by just 1.1 seconds. In 2022, Leclerc’s fastest-clocked timing in the 3rd session of qualifying was 1:41.3. Today, it was 1:40.2.

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One reason behind the unnoticeable improvement could be the nature of the Baku street circuit. The track has some narrow passages and fast corners where drivers are afraid to go full throttle. Moreover, a section of the track, during the sunset, throws the sunlight right into the eyes of the drivers, blinding them momentarily. Whether that is the reason for Leclerc and the rest of the grid playing it safe, only they would know.

How the rest of the grid for the main race will look like

Before Leclerc took the pole position, he was tied with Verstappen to the final millisecond for the provisional pole. That is a testament to how thrilling the entire session was.

Meanwhile, Verstappen (P2) leads his teammate Sergio Perez in P3. Carlos Sainz, after struggling in Q1 and Q2, managed a P4 finish. Mercedes drivers struggled for pace and that shows in their results too. George Russell finished P11 while Lewis Hamilton managed a respectable P5.

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Tomorrow, that is, Saturday, is the day reserved for just the Sprint. Firstly, we will have the Sprint Shootout, which is a separate qualifying session for just the Sprint Race. Then we’ll have the Sprint Race itself. Let us know your predictions for tomorrow in the comments below.