George Russell takes Azerbaijan GP pole as Kimi Antonelli crashes in Q1

F1 qualifying and Antonelli crash

Mercedes driver George Russell took pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Friday after championship leader Kimi Antonelli crashed during the opening qualifying phase. Antonelli, who entered the Baku weekend with an 81-point lead in the drivers standings after winning eight of the first 14 rounds, hit the wall at the first turn during Q1. The Italian driver sustained terminal front-left damage and attempted to drive back to the pit lane before being instructed by race engineer Peter Bonnington to stop on track. The stoppage restricted Antonelli to 16th on the grid for Saturday's Grand Prix, following earlier track time lost to a hydraulic failure during Thursday practice.

Russell secures pole position

Russell recorded a qualifying time approximately 0.8 seconds ahead of Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who will start on the front row in second place. McLaren's Oscar Piastri qualified third, followed by Isack Hadjar in fourth, Lando Norris in fifth, Lewis Hamilton in sixth, and Max Verstappen in eighth. The result gives Russell his first pole position since the Austrian Grand Prix in June, adding to his earlier 2026 poles in Australia and Austria.

Russell reflected on the result during his post-qualifying interview:

It has been a while since I have been on pole, so it definitely feels good. It is probably the biggest (pole) margin of my whole career, even in my Formula Two and Formula Three days, and that felt really sweet. The car has been feeling great this weekend. It was just the perfect lap at the end. We are in a great place to go for the win, but this is Baku and anything can happen.

Dunne wins Baku Formula 2 feature race

In Formula 2, Rodin Motorsport driver Alex Dunne won the Friday feature race after starting from pole position. Dunne led teammate Martinius Stenshorne across the line to secure a one-two finish for Rodin, while sprint race winner Dino Beganovic finished in third position. The race was interrupted on lap eight by a safety car after Mari Boya slowed at turn one, followed by a red flag on lap 12 when a seven-car collision at turn three eliminated Nikola Tsolov, Cian Shields, John Bennett, Laurens van Hoepen, Rafael Villagomez, Joshua Durksen, and Rimoto Miyata. Oliver Goethe led at the rolling restart before Dunne executed a pass with 10 minutes remaining to secure his first feature race victory of the season.

Championship standings and weekend schedule

Dunne collected the maximum score for victory alongside the bonus point for fastest lap, having also taken third in the earlier sprint race. The result moved the Irish driver to 174 points in the Formula 2 standings, closing within eight points of leader Rafael Camara (182 points) and seven points behind Tsolov (181 points).

Dunne addressed his result after stepping off the podium:

I feel like it's been forever since I last won a race so to do it in the fashion today - getting the double podium today with the result in the Sprint and getting a 1-2 for the team is the cherry on top.

The Formula 2 schedule in Baku continues on Saturday with a second feature race, in which Dunne starts second behind pole-sitter Stenshorne.