Russell takes pole position for Azerbaijan GP after championship leader Antonelli crashes

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept 25 : Briton George Russell stormed to a dominant pole position in Friday’s qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and saw his fading title hopes receive a much-needed boost from a crash for Mercedes championship-leading teammate Kimi Antonelli.

The 28-year-old clocked a one minute, 42.526 second lap around the 6km Baku street track, bettering his own previous benchmark by half a second, to go 0.837 seconds clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Australian Oscar Piastri was third for McLaren.

Antonelli, who leads Russell by 81 points in the overall standings and came into the weekend gunning for his third successive win and ninth of the season, will start 16th after crashing out in the first phase of qualifying.

The 20-year-old clobbered the barrier at the apex of the first corner and had to park up with a broken suspension.

"It’s been a while so it definitely feels good," said Russell after taking his first pole position since the Austrian Grand Prix in June.

"Probably the biggest margin in my whole career.

"On a track like this when you can hook it up like that it feels really amazing," added the Briton, who has looked dialled in all weekend.

Isack Hadjar, who was handed a contract extension by Red Bull earlier this week, was an impressive fourth on his return to action. The Frenchman had missed the last three races with a wrist injury.

McLaren's reigning world champion Lando Norris was fifth ahead of Ferrari's seven-times champion Lewis Hamilton and Alpine's Pierre Gasly.

Four-times champion Max Verstappen, who looked to be in the fight for pole, was eighth.

Carlos Sainz made it through to the final phase of qualifying in his updated Williams, with Alpine's Franco Colapinto rounding out the top 10.