Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen claimed a second consecutive pole position, and his first in Azerbaijan, while teammate Yuki Tsunoda will start P6 in tomorrow's race.
Q1 saw Verstappen and Tsunoda set positive first lap times with both running on the medium tyres instead of the usual softs, with the pair sitting P4 and P5 respectively before the red flag halted the session. Just 0.127 seconds separated the pair on their initial runs, with just over six minutes remaining in the first portion of qualifying.
Verstappen's second run saw him leap up to P2, just 0.009 seconds behind Lando Norris, while Tsunoda managed to sneak through to Q2 in P12, unable to improve on his set time. Q1 ended under a red flag.
Q2 was halted shortly after it began, with Haas' Ollie Bearman hitting the wall and damaging his car, which brought out the fourth red flag of qualifying after two earlier flags in Q1 for Williams' Alex Albon and Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg.
The two Red Bulls remained on the medium tyres, preferring them to the softs, with Verstappen putting himself in the conversation for pole position. His first run saw him sit P3, while Tsunoda was battling to make it into Q3, sitting P11 after his first lap.
Tsunoda's final run was a late one, but he improved just enough to reach P10 and move into the final stage of qualifying, while Verstappen leapfrogged the two McLarens to finish Q2 in P1.
Verstappen was on the radio early in Q3 talking about the weather, shortly before Ferrari's Charles Leclerc brought out another red flag after crashing into the barrier. With only seven minutes remaining, both Red Bulls had to push hard to claim the best starting position possible.
Time was cut down even more as McLaren's Oscar Piastri's crash with just over three minutes remaining saw Verstappen's push lap cut short, with both Red Bulls only able to get one timed lap in during Q3.
The two drivers went out on brand new soft tyres for the first time in qualifying, desperate to get the best lap times in as possible. With Norris clipping the wall on his only run, Verstappen claimed pole position with a strong single lap on the streets of Baku, seeing the Championship challenger start P7 tomorrow.
Tsunoda, meanwhile, starts P6 after his own strong showing was enough to beat the McLaren driver. The result is the best qualifying position by Red Bull's second driver since the same race in 2024, where Sergio Perez qualified P4.
"Long qualifying, to be honest, with so many red flags, so it was very difficult to basically get your lap together because most of the time your tyres aren't ready, or again a red flag happens."
"Especially Q3 with a bit of rain around, it was a very difficult session, and in the final lap, you just have to send it."
He added: "I wasn't even on the best tyres that I wanted, but because of all the red flags, we ran out of tyres."
"I'm very happy, so far, with how the weekend went because I think from FP1 we were not too bad and just kept on improving a tiny amount, and then we were there in qualifying."
He concluded: "That's of course where it matters."
