Jakarta (ANTARA) - Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc won pole position at the Baku Circuit for the third year in a row in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying session, Friday.
The pole was Ferrari's first pole position this season after they witnessed Red Bull's dominance in qualifying for the previous three races.
Leclerc recorded the fastest time of 1:40.203 to beat Red Bull's Max Verstappen by a margin of 0.188 seconds on his last lap in Q3, according to official Formula 1 records.
Sergio Perez will park his second Red Bull car in P3, accompanied by Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz in the second row.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton finished barely a second behind the polesitterto secure P5 for Mercedes with Fernando Alonso looking to maintain momentum for a fourth successive podium finish for Aston Martin
With the new format introduced in Baku, the drivers will conduct one more qualifying session on Saturday to determine the starting position of the 100km sprint race, whose finish will now have no effect on the grid position of Sunday's main race.
Today's qualifying session was temporarily suspended due to a number of accidents such as when Alpine racer Pierre Gasly and AlphaTauri racer Nyck de Vries crashed into Turn 3 at different times. Both incidents caused red flags to be raised.
Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur believes there is still room to improve on the SF-23's performance following two DNFs flanking a Q7 finish in Jeddah that led Leclerc to call "the worst start to a season."
Ferrari have not tasted the top step of the podium at Baku since the circuit debuted on the F1 calendar in 2016. The Italian team, however, have only managed three podiums marred by a double DNF last year.
Ferrari is now trailing in the constructors' standings behind Red Bull, Aston Martin and Mercedes.
Following are the results of the Azerbaijan GP qualification
1 Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari 1:40,203
2 Max Verstappen Oracle Red Bull Racing 1:40,391
3 Sergio Perez Oracle Bull Racing 1:40,495
4 Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari 1:41,016
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team 1:41,177
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team 1:41,253
7 Lando Norris McLaren F1 Team 1:41,281
8 Yuki Tsunoda Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:41,581
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team 1:41,611
10 Oscar Piastri McLaren F1 Team 1:41,611
11 George Russell Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team
12 Esteban Ocon BWT Alpine F1 Team
13 Alex Albon Williams Racing
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake
15 Logan Sargeant Williams Racing
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake
17 Nico Hulkenberg MoneyGram Haas F1 Team
18 Kevin Magnussen MoneyGram Haas F1 Team
19 Pierre Gasly BWT Alpine F1 Team
20 Nyck de Vries Scuderia AlphaTauri
Lecuona is nervous about returning to MotoGP
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Honda racer for World Superbike (WSBK) Iker Lecuona admits that he is quite nervous about returning to the MotoGP event to replace Marc Marquez at this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.
"It feels 'crazy' to return to MotoGP. When I was told (to replace Marquez), it was a big surprise because I expected to see Marc here and I was at home," said Lecuona, quoted from the official WSBK statement, Friday.
"But in the end I said 'yes' because this is my dream team. This is a great opportunity. I really appreciate that they gave me this opportunity and I will try to enjoy the race," he added.
Previously, Marquez was still declared to have not recovered from the broken first metacarpal injury in his right hand at the Portuguese Grand Prix. Honda is also targeting Marquez to return to the track at the French Grand Prix, May 12-14.
Lecuona already has experience in the MotoGP paddock by winning two podiums while competing in Moto2. The Spaniard also became one of the top 10 in the main class in 2021.
He then switched to WSBK on the Honda factory team. However Lecuona was unlucky in the last two rounds of the season due to an accident which knocked him out.
However, Lecuona said he couldn't wait to get back on the track and ride a MotoGP motorbike this weekend. He also admitted that he did not have a specific target for the upcoming race.
"I don't have any expectations, I'll just try to enjoy the race later. It's the first time in two years that I'm back in the (MotoGP) paddock with this bike, so there are a lot of new things to understand," said Lecuona.
"It's also the first time I've met Honda (MotoGP team) and this machine. I need to learn and we'll see how the training sessions go. I'm really excited to get started!" he added.
Hamilton is optimistic about the development of the Mercedes W14
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton admits that he is quite optimistic about the development of the W14 race car that will accompany him in Formula 1, which will return to the track at this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
"I think this (W14) will have (more) improvement, of course. This will be the start of a new road for us. It's still the same car but he has his own path to achieve the goals we want," said Hamilton, quoted from official F1 page, Friday.
The seven-time world champion's optimism is not without reason, considering that he went through a tough start to the season but was finally able to finish second at the Australian GP some time ago. This result was the first podium he won this season.
"I think it's been really positive the fact that so much great work has been put in by the team at the factory, they're taking the time to move in the right direction," said Hamilton.
Previously, Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has confirmed that the team will make small upgrades in the coming weeks which are expected to provide support and opportunities for drivers and teams to continue to develop the car and become the biggest competitor after Red Bull.
Even so, Hamilton said the team still had to keep trying to improve the car considering that his teammate, George Russell, had experienced technical problems during the race in Australia.
In addition, the British driver added, this season is very competitive with Red Bull who continues to dominate and Aston Martin who also has a good track record throughout the start of this season.
"A lot of work has been done, the last race was very good for us – we worked hard to get a result like that. It won't be easy to do it again -- Ferrari, Red Bull, Aston Martin went very fast. I just hope we are on the right track so make the weekend even more interesting.
Because of the ban on its airspace, the Moroccan national team arrives in Algeria on a foreign plane
The delegation of the Moroccan junior football team landed in Algeria, today, Friday, on a Romanian plane, due to the ban on Moroccan planes flying in Algeria.
The president of the Moroccan Football Federation, Fawzi Lakjaa, was forced to rent a plane belonging to the "Star East Airlines SRL" company from Romania, which was taken by the delegation of his country's junior team on its trip to Algeria.
Lakjaa had previously insisted that the youth team arrive on a Moroccan plane, from the capital, Rabat, to the city of Constantine.
The Algerian authorities responded to him by saying that they welcome the arrival of the Moroccan national team for the Cubs, including landing directly at Constantine Airport. But on a plane that has nothing to do with the country of Marrakech.
The president of the Moroccan Football Association then appealed to "FIFA", noting that the position of membership in the council of this body helps him. However, President Gianni Infantino's federation told him that he could not interfere in the sovereign decisions of countries, and all he could do was give him a FIFA plane.
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