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Max on pole as Red Bulls beat red flagsThe Full Quali Report.

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“In the final lap, you just have to send it,” said Max after sealing his 46th career pole. “I'm very happy with how the weekend went so far, because from FP1, we were not too bad, and we just kept on improving a tiny amount. And then we were there in qualifying, and that's, of course, where it matters.”

FP3

After reporting that Team was still “working to find more one-lap pace” on Friday, today’s final practice saw Max reap the reward of the effort, as he put in a strong final flyer of 1:41.445 to take P2 and split the McLarens of FP3’s fastest man, Lando, and third-placed Oscar.

With strong gusts making conditions challenging, Max waited out the first half of the session before putting in an increasingly rapid series of soft tyre runs that kept him close to the top of the timesheet.

In the final 10 minutes, Max powered past Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to sit six tenths clear of the field, only for Lando to then jump another half-second ahead. Oscar also went ahead of Max, but the four-time Champion was finding more and more pace, and his final flyer put him just two tenths off Lando.

It was a trickier session for Yuki, who, despite hitting phenomenal speeds on Baku’s long straight, struggled for balance in the slower sections. He ended the session in P16, with a best time of 1:42.840.

Q1

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With the C6 compound Pirelli tyres once again proving to be somewhat unpredictable and needing plenty of research in practice, the Bulls emerged on C5 mediums at the start of Q1, as did the McLarens. And after Charles, on soft tyres, took the top spot thanks to a lap of 1:41.982, Max jumped to P2, just over two tenths off the Ferrari driver and two ahead of Lando. Yuki’s first flyer netted him a time of 1:42.878 and eighth place on the timesheet, a tenth behind soft-shod Lewis Hamilton.

However, as the opening runs came to an end, the red flags made their first appearance. Alex Albon clipped the wall on the inside of Turn 1, and with his front-left suspension broken, the Williams driver stopped on track, causing a halt to the session. The incident left Oscar and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli without a time on the board.

The session resumed with 11 minutes remaining, and once again the Bulls headed out on C5 rubber. Ferrari stuck with the red-banded tyres, however, and Lewis soon moved to P1 with a lap of 1:41.821. Oscar then jumped from P20 to P2, a little over a tenth ahead of Charles and Max, who sat in fourth on 1:42.210. There was a big improvement for Yuki, with the Japanese driver finding over half a second over his opener to post a lap of 1:42.347 to take P5, 0.137s off Max.

As those runs came to an end, the red flags came out again. Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg hit the wall in Turn 4 and though he was able to trundle back to the pits minus a front wing, the session was stopped once again.

When the session resumed there was just time for one final run, and Lando, on softs, took the top spot with a time of 1:41.322. Max also found more time, climbing to P2, just 0.009s off the McLaren driver.

There was no improvement for Yuki, however, with his run being hampered by Pierre Gasly as he went deep into the escape road at Turn 4 before his teammate, Franco Colapinto, clouted the wall on the exit of the same corner, bringing out the red flags once again. Despite missing out on his lap, Yuki eased through in P12.

There was no room in Q2 for Franco, who dropped out in P16, and he was followed to the exit by Nico, Haas’ Esteban Ocon, Pierre and Alex.

Q2

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Almost as soon as Q2 got underway, the red flags were flown for a fourth time. Ollie Bearman hit the concrete wall on the exit of Turn 2, and he ground to a halt on the run to Turn 3.

With Ollie’s Haas removed from the track and the session underway once more, Max and Lando continued their duel, with the Briton taking top spot on 1:41.39 and Max again slotting into second, five hundredths of a second off. Yuki, meanwhile, took P9, half a second off the top spot.

Behind them, Charles, who had fluffed his first run by going wide in Turn 1, was in desperate need of a time and a clean final flyer boosted him into the top 10. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso also muscled into a Q3 spot and that left Yuki down in P11. Our Japanese driver rose to the challenge, however, and a strong final flyer of 1:41.788 saw Yuki edge his way past Alonso to claim P10 and a spot in the final session.

Max, meanwhile, was finding even more time, and right at the end of the session, the Dutchman leapfrogged Lando to claim the top spot with a final lap of 1:41.255, 0.141 ahead of the McLaren driver.

With Yuki muscling through to Q3, Fernando dropped out in P11 ahead of Hamilton, Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll and the unfortunate Ollie Bearman.

Q3

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The final session got underway with droplets of rain falling, and the change in conditions was demonstrated when George Russell slid into the escape road at Turn 4. That unsettled Lando, who almost had a slide as he exited the corner, with Max just a few moments later on the radio saying, “It's too slippery. Now Russell goes straight – it's raining.” The message didn’t reach Charles, however. The Monegasque driver locked up into Turn 15, and after he slammed nose first into the barriers, the red flags were flown for the fifth time.

The halt meant that with the conditions in flux, just three drivers – provisional pole sitter Carlos Sainz and the twin VCARBs of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar – had times on the board.

But even when the session resumed, there was no chance for anyone else to complete a flying lap. Max got close, running marginally faster than Carlos as he went onto the final straight, but then, almost inevitably, the red flags came out again – this time for Oscar.

The championship leader went too hot into Turn 3 and, in similar style to Charles, he arrowed straight into the barriers to halt the session for a sixth time.

The risk-reward balance was now perilously fine, and when the green lights at last went on at the end of pit lane to start the final runs, the battle for pole came down to finding the perfect blend of pace, precision and ice-cool calm.

And again, almost inevitably, it was Max who delivered the most potent blend of all of those qualities.

Lando, first out on track, was too ragged, and the slips and slides of early lap moments became a lap-wrecking brush with the barriers in Turn 15, and he failed to turn opportunity into positive outcome.

Max made no such mistakes. Second to last out on track, the four-time champion went close to the edge but always stayed in control, and when he crossed the line, it was in 1:41.117, enough to deliver a first Baku pole ahead of Carlos, the VCARB of Liam Lawson, and both Mercedes drivers.

Yuki also put in a superbly committed final lap to take his best ever qualifying performance for the Team with sixth place ahead of Lando, Isack, Oscar and Charles.