Baku, Sep 14 (IANS): Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finished Qualifying in pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row. Oscar Piastri finished three-tenths of a second behind the pole sitter with Carlos Sainz set to start at third spot in the race on Sunday.

Qualifying 1 started off with a shocking result as Championship contender Lando Norris was knocked out after finishing 17th. The Mclaren driver’s final lap was forced to be cut short due to a yellow flag which did not give him the chance to make iut of the first session. Alongside Lando, Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu (Sauber), (grid penalty) and Esteban Ocon will be starting at the back of the grid.

"The lap was easily good enough but it was a yellow flag so I had to back off,” said Lando Norris. On potentially making up positions he added "I don't think it's as easy as that, honestly following is pretty much impossible around here and overtaking is a lot worse than what everyone thinks.”

Oliver Bearman, Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll were the next five racers who were eliminated from top 10 contention as they were eliminated in Q2.

Williams’ Franco Colapinto, who has recently replaced the struggling Logan Sergeant, out qualified his teammate and will start at ninth place on Sunday. Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s strugg;les continued as the Dutch driver was out qualified by teammate Sergio Perez as the former finished at sixth place whereas the Mexican will start at P4.

George Russell put his Mercedes in fifth place whereas Lewis Hamilton faced a battle to get his tyres up to temperature en route to seventh place

Charles Leclerc secured pole with a time of 1 minute 41.365s on the board. It was all set to be a front row lockout for Ferrari had it not been for Oscar Piastri’s final lap which saw him finish above the Spaniard.

“It’s one of my favourite tracks of the season, I really like it, it hasn’t been an easy weekend because of the crash in FP1, it didn’t make me lose confidence as I knew that the pace was there, but you’ve got to be back up to speed. In Q3 and qualifying it was all about trying to stay as far as possible from the walls and on the last lap I went for it a bit more and the lap time came very nicely.," said Leclerc in the post-qualifying interview.