Charles Leclerc was in a league of his own on Saturday, cruising to pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Championship contender Lando Norris will start from 17th, while Max Verstappen was only sixth fastest.

In FP3 there was nothing to separate the top teams, and the intense fight for the top spots on the timing screens carried over into qualifying. At the end of Q1, Williams, Haas and Alpine were all represented in the top seven positions.

At the other of the order, there was a huge scalp. Norris abandoned his flying lap after Esteban Ocon brought out the yellow flags, condemning him to a P17 grid slot on Sunday. McLaren apologised to their star driver over the radio, but there was little they could do to improve his mood.

Verstappen heaped more pain on Norris, going fastest of all in Q2, but the headline stealer was Franco Colapinto, who finished the session four-tenths faster than Alex Albon to finish sixth, ahead of Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton.

Oliver Bearman wasn’t so lucky on his Haas debut. The Brit outqualified team-mate Nico Hulkenberg but was bumped into the bottom five late on by Fernando Alonso. Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll were also unable to advance to Q3.