Charles Leclerc takes impressive pole for Ferrari at Azerbaijan Grand Prix via IrishTimesSport
Leclerc’s first pole of the season is the 19th of his career and his third in a row in Baku but he has yet to convert one of them into a win in Azerbaijan. After a trying start to the season, this is the turnaround he and Ferrari required. He suffered an engine failure at the opening round in Bahrain, had a 10-place grid penalty at the next meeting in Saudi Arabia and was unlucky to be punted out of the race on the first lap in Australia.
F1 introduced the sprint meeting in 2021 with three races and this season it has increased that number to six. The previous format has long been considered unsatisfactory. It had held a single practice session on a Friday morning, followed by qualifying to decide the grid for the sprint race on a Friday afternoon and from which pole position for the weekend would be awarded.
This weekend Saturday will now host what is being called the sprint shoot-out qualifying, a truncated version of the traditional arrangement which will decide the grid for the sprint race which will follow. The sprint will be over 100km with points from eight to one for the top eight, while both events will be stand-alone and have no bearing on Sunday’s GP, with the sport hoping the new structure will address the shortcomings of the previous format to encourage drivers to race harder.
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