formula 1
Verstappen wins chaotic qualifying in Baku
Updated on September 20, 2025 – 4:17 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
In the streets of Baku, chaotic qualifying developed in strong winds. In the end, Max Verstappen kept the upper hand.
World champion Max Verstappen continued his high -altitude flight in the completely chaotic qualifying of Baku and conquered the pole position for the Grand Prix of Azerbaijan. The Red Bull driver prevailed on Saturday ahead of Williams driver Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls), and the past race in Monza had already won Verstappen from the pole. The time hunt was made more difficult by strong wind, which led to numerous accidents. A total of six times the qualifying was interrupted with a red flag – record for Formula 1.
The title candidates in the McLaren were among the victims. Lando Norris will only start from seventh place, Oscar Piatri became ninth. The Australian had controlled its racing cars into the route limitation in the last qualifying section and was badly damaged.
This means that there is also a question mark behind the goal for this weekend: McLaren can win the team World Cup prematurely. If the racing team gets at least nine points more than Ferrari on Sunday (1:00 p.m. in LiveTicker at T-Online) and also does not lose significantly on Mercedes and Red Bull, then the triumph is already perfect before the end, that would be a record. Norris also needs a success in a duel with Piatri, the gap to the World Cup leader is 31 points.
It didn’t go any better for Ferrari: Charles Leclerc put his racing car in the guardrail in the third qualifying section, so he will only start from tenth. For Lewis Hamilton, qualifying also brought the next disappointment, the record world champion only landed in twelve. The two Mercedes pilots Kimi Antonelli and George Russell won places four and five.
Nico Hülkenberg failed in the first qualifying section and only landed in 17th place, for the seventh time in a row he completed the time hunt behind his clean teammate Gabriel Bortoleto (13th). The German had previously kissed the route limit and lost his front wing.