How much it meant was clear as Charles Leclerc climbed from his car having taken pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and vigorously pointed to the prancing horse logo on his chest. Before Sunday, however, Leclerc and the rest will have to reset entirely for another full day of competition as F1 adopts its new sprint race format in Azerbaijan. There is no reason Leclerc should not repeat his feat on Saturday morning but the margins will be tight once more. On the final laps Leclerc went out first and immediately found an aggressive but beautifully judged line, going quicker in the opening two sectors with a brilliant lap that Verstappen could not match to claim pole with a time of 1:40.203. Lewis Hamilton put in a mighty effort to take fifth but remained a full second off Leclerc’s time, while his teammate George Russell went out in Q2 in 11th place.

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