FACTS AND STATS: Verstappen bags sixth pole amidst a record six red flags in eventful Baku Qualifying

Baku threw up a frantic Qualifying session featuring a record six red flags. But through it all, Max Verstappen emerged as comfortably quickest, grabbing his sixth pole position of the season. The top 10 was mixed behind him though, with plenty to talk about after a very entertaining session. Here are the best facts and stats from the Baku City Circuit…

• Today’s Qualifying took one hour and 58 minutes, longer than last year’s entire Grand Prix.
• Six red flags is a new record, surpassing the five at Imola in 2022 and Sao Paulo in 2024. There were three red flags in Q1, one in Q2 and two in Q3.
• Verstappen has six poles in 2025, the most of any driver. It is his first career pole in Baku, and the first Red Bull P1 here.

• Verstappen grabbed pole with the biggest margin here since 2016 of 0.478s.
• Carlos Sainz bagged second, which is the first front row Qualifying slot for Williams since George Russell at Belgium in 2021.
• The last time Williams physically started on the front row was in Monza in 2017 with Lance Stroll.
• Verstappen and Sainz on the front row are former team mates, both making their F1 debuts together in 2015.
• This is Williams’ first ever top-four start in Baku, with Sainz out-qualifying a team mate here for the first time.
• This was only the second Q3 appearance for Sainz in the last 10 Grands Prix.
• Liam Lawson was third, the sixth top-three start for the Faenza team in their 40-year history.

• Kimi Antonelli was fourth, as he out-qualifies Russell for just the second time for a Grand Prix this season after Miami.
• Russell was fifth, the sixth time this year he has qualified there. He has qualified P5 in Baku on all three occasions he has made Q3 here.
• Yuki Tsunoda was sixth, his best Qualifying of the year and first top six for Red Bull.
• Lando Norris was only seventh, and this was the first time there was no McLaren car in the top six in Qualifying since Bahrain 2024.
• Isack Hadjar qualified P8, the fourth time in the last five Grands Prix both Racing Bulls cars have made Q3.
• Oscar Piastri was ninth after crashing in Q3, the first time he has been outside the top four since Las Vegas 2023.
• Charles Leclerc ended his run of four straight poles with P10, after also crashing.
• Fernando Alonso grabbed P11, his worst qualifying here since 2018. This is only the third time he has not made Q3 in the last 11 race weekends.

• Lewis Hamilton was 12th, failing to reach Q3 for the fifth time this season.
• Gabriel Bortoleto was 13th as he tied Kick Sauber’s best ever start in Azerbaijan. He out-qualified Nico Hulkenberg for the seventh straight race.
• Lance Stroll was P14, just the second time he has escaped Q1 in the last eight races.
• Ollie Bearman leads Esteban Ocon 9-8 in Qualifying this season after making Q2.
• Franco Colapinto out-qualified Pierre Gasly at consecutive races for the first time.
• Hulkenberg suffered his 11th Q1 elimination of the season to tie Stroll for the most early exits.
• Ocon was 18th, and will start from P18 or lower for the third year in a row at this track.
• Gasly has not started higher than P17 in Baku since 2022 after qualifying 19th. Both Alpine cars were eliminated in Q1 for the second consecutive race.
• Alex Albon was out in Q1 in Bahrain and Hungary, and did not score in either race.