Nico Rosberg will start the inaugural race around the Baku Street Circuit from pole position after a mistake from his Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team-mate Lewis Hamilton gave him a free run to top spot.
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Hamilton starts 10th for the second time in five races after an unusually error-strewn qualifying hour saw him make several mistakes before crashing and breaking his car’s suspension at Turn 10 in the closing minutes of Q3.
World champion Lewis Hamilton says he has no excuses for his disappointing qualifying performance in Baku.
Hamilton’s bad afternoon was a horror show – after topping the table in every practice session, he went off into the escape road three times before his final, decisive exit.
Mr. Pérez qualified 2nd for the race, beating out Daniel Ricciardo in 3rd and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in 4th.
“It’s damage limitation from here”, Hamilton said. “I had a fantastic rhythm yesterday but none whatsoever today”, he confirmed. “I’m very, very happy”, Rosberg said.
“The best thing I can do is try to look forward, no point in looking at the past, no matter how pissed off you’re going to be”.
The session ended with a big crash for Force India’s Sergio Perez, who hit the wall at turn 15, just as Ricciardo had on Friday. It was nothing to do with anyone else, it was just me not doing good laps.
“Winning is all that counts – it is what I go to bed dreaming about”.
Ricciardo and Vettel, former team mates at Red Bull, recorded exactly the same time of 1:43.966 but the smiling Australian got the nod for crossing the finish line first.
“Sometimes you feel good and do bad, and vice versa”. Ultimately, it was only me, nothing to do with the team or vehicle.
Meanwhile, Hulkenberg and his race engineer had a set-to over the radio over whether or not the driver had been told he had enough fuel and time for a last quick lap. “I was not able to brake in the same places as I was, and I didn’t adjust for it, so it was my mistake”.
Rosberg agreed the prospect of caution periods was “going to be one of the challenging aspects of the race”.
“Nico has got a pretty easy run at the front”. Then obviously I thought I had one more chance but then the red flag came out.
Valtteri Bottas was a disappointed eighth, twice locking up into T1 while trying to pass a Red Bull, while Max Verstappen came in ninth and Hamilton – as mentioned – finished slowest in Q3 in P10.
Further back, Toro Rosso pilot Carlos Sainz took 13th, ahead of McLaren Honda’s Fernando Alonso, the second Haas of Esteban Gutierrez and Sauber’s Felipe Nasr.
In the first session McLaren’s Jenson Button, who was eliminated along with Rio Haryanto and Pascal Wehrlein.
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“Probably a lot of safety cars too, and restarts”.
