2024 F1 Azerbaijan GP Qualifying: Winners and Losers

The 2024 F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying saw Charles Leclerc reign supreme and secure his second pole position of the season. It was also the fourth consecutive pole in Baku for the Ferrari driver.

He will be accompanied on the front row by Oscar Piastri, as the Australian put together a brilliant lap in Q3 for McLaren. Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz could only muster a P3 with a time that was quite adrift of his teammate. He will be accompanied by Sergio Perez, who outqualified his teammate Max Verstappen for the first time in 33 races.

With the grid set for the Azerbaijan GP, who will be disappointed by how qualifying went, and who will be looking forward to Sunday? Let's take a look.

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2024 F1 Azerbaijan GP Qualifying

Winner

Charles Leclerc and Ferrari

While it might have looked easy from the outside, it certainly wasn't. The Italian team was under pressure heading into the weekend.

They had already once experienced a peak at Monaco, followed by a disastrous fall in the following races. Charles Leclerc himself sounded a bit tense on Friday at points and even during qualifying.

In the end, though, as the ducks aligned perfectly, Leclerc did what can only be described as a brilliant job. He's a Baku specialist but hasn't won a race at the Azerbaijan GP. It will be interesting to see if he can do that on Sunday.

Loser

Lando Norris and McLaren

Yes, it was unlucky, and yes it was something that was probably the FIA's fault, but that has compromised Lando Norris' weekend big time.

The young McLaren driver has been in the eye of the storm for far too long now, and it will be very interesting to see whether Norris can back himself to score good points at the Azerbaijan GP on Sunday.

Winner

The rookies

Franco Colapinto and Ollie Bearman are two names that will resonate with fans after the Azerbaijan GP is done because both drivers have left a mark on the weekend. Colapinto might have even ended up turning heads at Red Bull and Audi as well with his form.

The two drivers with minimal testing and experience outqualified their highly rated teammates. It sure is an interesting development for fans and the sport in general.

Loser

Max Verstappen

This is the second race weekend in a row where Verstappen messed up his qualifying lap and possibly cost himself a couple of positions.

The Red Bull driver talked about how maybe the setup wasn't nailed perfectly but regardless, you cannot keep making mistakes when not only is your car doing well but your primary opponent is struggling.

Winner

Oscar Piastri

Piastri might be breathing a sigh of relief that the Azerbaijan GP might not be the race where he has to cede positions to his teammate. Keeping that aside, he was brilliant in qualifying, as he kicked things into a different gear in Q3 and extracted times McLaren haven't shown since then.

There's definitive progress made by the Australian, and we're starting to see more and more of it recently.

Loser

Lewis Hamilton

When the Azerbaijan GP race weekend comes to an end, Hamilton will be 4-13 in qualifying against George Russell this season after being comprehensively outqualified by his teammate once again.

Whether it's age or an inability to adapt to the car, the Mercedes driver cannot keep leaving points and opportunities on the table and hope to be a title contender again.