Six red flags in Baku bookended by Albon and Piastri
Alex Albon crashed out of Baku qualifying in the early stages.
Just minutes into the first part of qualifying in Baku, Alex Albon hit the wall to bring out the red flags and stop the session.
However, he wasn’t the only driver to cause a red flag in the opening segment with Nico Hulkenberg the next to put his car nose-first into the wall before the Alpine’s Franco Colapinto crashed late in the session just moments after his teammate had an off.
Alex Albon brings out the first of three red flags
Albon’s weekend in Azerbaijan has been severely compromised as the British-Thai driver crashed out of Q1.
Just six minutes into the segment, the red flags were thrown as Albon brought his damaged Williams to a halt in the pitlane exit.
Replays showed that, starting his flying lap, Albon had turned into Turn 1 a fraction too early and clipped the apex barriers.
This immediately broke the suspension on his front-left corner, knocking his wheel askew, and forced him to pull over and clamber out.
“F**k, I’m out. Sorry,” he radioed in, aware of the potential impact this could have on Williams’ weekend.
Albon had shown strong pace in third practice, finishing in seventh place, seven-tenths of a second off the pace set by Lando Norris.
He wasn’t the only driver to bring out the red flags in Q1, as Nico Hulkenberg did so with six minutes remaining.
Carrying slightly too much speed into Turn 4, the Sauber driver attempted to abort the corner and take to the escape area, but lost grip to just slide into the barriers and lose his front wing.
While reversing out, the stewards opted to red flag the session in order to clean up the debris from Hulkenberg’s car.
The drivers, though, weren’t done with the red flags.
Heading into the dying seconds of Q1, Pierre Gasly bailed off into the run-off area at Turn 4. However, the red flags weren’t for Gasly but teammate Franco Colapinto.
The Argentinian ploughed into the barrier nose-first at the same corner and dejectedly walked away from his damaged A525.
The start of Q2 was delayed as a result.
Oliver Bearman promptly started Q2 with a crash even before the first time had been posted. He clattered into the barrier and broke his suspension. “Sorry guys, so stupid,” he lamented.
But the driver who coined “stupid” when it comes to Baku, Charles Leclerc wasn’t to be outdone as he binned his Ferrari at Turn 15 in the opening minutes of Q3.
Shockingly Oscar Piastri added his name to the list in probably his first mistake since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. He lost it into Turn 3, sliding across the track and into the wall.
A grand total of six red flags for Baku qualifying!
This story will be updated.
