{"id":171187,"date":"2025-09-20T15:23:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T15:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/f1-carlos-sainz-second-on-the-grid-in-baku-just-behind-verstappen\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T15:23:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T15:23:50","slug":"f1-carlos-sainz-second-on-the-grid-in-baku-just-behind-verstappen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/f1-carlos-sainz-second-on-the-grid-in-baku-just-behind-verstappen\/","title":{"rendered":"F1: Carlos Sainz, second on the grid in Baku, just behind Verstappen."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As night fell in \u00a0Baku\u00a0, the drizzle began to set the stage for an electrifying qualifying session during the 2025 Formula 1 season. With just eight minutes left in Q3, the rain intensified shortly before \u00a0Charles Leclerc\u00a0 triggered the session\u2019s fifth red flag. At that moment, \u00a0Carlos Sainz\u00a0 held the top spot with a time of 1:41.595, closely followed by \u00a0Liam Lawson\u00a0 and \u00a0Isack Hadjar\u00a0. Sainz humorously rallied his team, saying, \u201cYou can start dancing to make the rain a bit stronger.\u201d This marked his seventh career pole position and his first since the last Mexican Grand Prix. However, his wishes fell on deaf ears as the sun peeked through, drying the asphalt just as \u00a0Max Verstappen\u00a0 and \u00a0Lando Norris\u00a0 started to push for the fastest times.<\/p>\n

Almost immediately, \u00a0Oscar Piastri\u00a0 found himself unable to navigate Turn 3, bringing out the sixth red flag of the day\u2014setting a record for the F1 calendar. The crucial slowdown prevented Verstappen and Norris from completing their attempts to snatch pole from Williams, leaving just 3:41 on the clock for one final shot at glory.<\/p>\n

That shot proved to be enough for Verstappen, who executed a precision lap of 1:41.117, besting Sainz by 47 milliseconds and Lawson, who came in third, by 59 milliseconds. This was Verstappen’s sixth pole of the year, outpacing Piastri’s count. In contrast, Norris underperformed, securing the seventh spot\u2014merely two positions ahead of his McLaren teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll Aim for the Podium\u201d<\/h2>\n

Reflecting on his impressive second-place finish, Sainz noted, \u201cWe had an impeccable qualifying session, using the right tires at the right moments. This year I have been delivering strong performances in qualifying, and today we proved I have speed.\u201d With the McLaren and Leclerc lagging, Sainz\u2019s main rivals for podium contention on race day could be \u00a0Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u00a0 and \u00a0George Russell\u00a0, who secured fourth and fifth positions, respectively. Not to be overlooked, \u00a0Yuki Tsunoda\u00a0, who finished sixth, eliminated \u00a0Fernando Alonso\u00a0 in Q2, sending the veteran to 11th on the starting grid, just ahead of \u00a0Lewis Hamilton\u00a0. The seven-time champion lamented to Sky F1, \u201cHonestly, I thought today I would fight for pole,\u201d reflecting on what he perceived as a strategic error from Ferrari for not utilizing medium tires in Q2.<\/p>\n

The qualifying session turned out to be a marathon, lasting nearly two hours\u2014longer than any of the previous 16 races of the season. This historic anomaly featured six interruptions due to accidents, including Leclerc’s fifth mishap at this track, where he had also secured four poles previously. Additionally, ferocious winds exceeding 80 km\/h posed further challenges for drivers, complicating their every proximity to the circuit walls.<\/p>\n

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Alonso, during the last free session in Baku.<\/span>AFP<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, in the case of \u00a0Alex Albon\u00a0, his collision, which occurred with tailwind towards the finish line, was not due to a late braking error but rather a driving mistake that saw him veer too close to the inside of Turn 1, damaging his front suspension. The British driver would not return to the track, losing out to Sainz in Saturday\u2019s battle, falling behind at 9-8.<\/p>\n

Calamity for Alpine<\/h2>\n

Following nearly 15 minutes of red flag time to clear the debris and prepare the track, \u00a0Nico Hulkenberg\u00a0 became the next driver to find the barriers, struggling to maneuver through Turn 4 before ultimately hitting the wall due to a slow-speed frontal impact. Although he returned to the track, the veteran from Sauber failed to move on to Q2.<\/p>\n

The session that lasted 38 minutes\u2014over double the scheduled 18 minutes\u2014culminated in a farcical manner for Alpine. Just as Alonso managed to climb to ninth position, \u00a0Pierre Gasly\u00a0 crashed at Turn 4. Following his wreck, \u00a0Franco Colapinto\u00a0 encountered the stricken car and spun spectacularly as a result. The expression on \u00a0Flavio Briatore’s\u00a0 face captured the disbelief in the Alpine garage, the team languishing at the bottom of the standings. <\/p>\n

The situation extended even longer into Q2 due to \u00a0Oliver Bearman\u2019s\u00a0 accident as he grazed the barriers at Turn 2, severely damaging his rear suspension. Failing to post a valid time, the British driver placed 15th on the grid, right behind \u00a0Lance Stroll\u00a0.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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General News – 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As night fell in \u00a0Baku\u00a0, the drizzle began to set the stage for an electrifying qualifying session during the 2025 Formula 1 season. With just eight minutes left in Q3, the rain intensified shortly before \u00a0Charles Leclerc\u00a0 triggered the session\u2019s fifth red flag. At that moment, \u00a0Carlos Sainz\u00a0 held the top spot with a time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":171188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[36710,39925,36958],"class_list":["post-171187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-deportes","tag-deportes-formula-1","tag-formula-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}