George Russell took an imperious pole position for Mercedes at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as his team-mate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli crashed out. Russell beat Ferrari's Charles Leclerc by a massive 0.837 seconds while Antonelli, who leads the Britain by 81 points in the championship, will start in 16th. The Italian hit the inside wall at Turn One in the first session and was knocked out. McLaren's Oscar Piastri was third ahead of Red Bull's Isack Hadjar and McLaren's Lando Norris.

Lewis Hamilton, compromised by running without a tow from another car, was sixth, ahead of the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Red Bull's Max Verstappen. Verstappen was following Norris on their final laps when the Briton made a mistake and went off track, scuppering Verstappen's chances. Russell said: "That's probably the biggest margin I've had in my whole career."

At the bottom of the top 10, Carlos Sainz achieved Williams' first top 10 qualifying performance of the year with ninth, but was later penalised for failing to slow for yellow flags and given a five-place penalty. Team-mate Alex Albon was 13th.

Antonelli's error came on his second lap of the first session, breaking the suspension. He initially tried to get the car back to the pits but was told by engineer Peter Bonnington to park up. It was Antonelli's first major mistake of the season since he crashed in final practice at the first race.