Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from P20 and P22 respectively after yellow flags denied both Cadillac Formula 1 drivers their best qualifying laps on the Baku City Circuit.
Pérez set a Q1 time of 1:46.658 but was forced to abort his final push lap after a competitor went off track, triggering yellows. Bottas, who posted a 1:48.290, had his best lap deleted following a double-waved yellow flag at the end of qualifying, leaving only his opening run to count.
“We were expecting more today,” Pérez said. “We needed everything to go our way, especially with the tow which is quite powerful — about six tenths — and we really needed that. We didn’t get the tow as we planned it with Valtteri and myself. On my final lap I had an issue with someone going off so I had to abort. Nothing went in our favor.”
Bottas had entered qualifying with renewed confidence after the team made significant setup changes between FP3 and the session. “We changed the floor and the suspension, so the car finally felt like it was working like it should,” he said. “It’s a shame that we couldn’t make the most of it. We’ve closed the gap to the pack this weekend and there should be some opportunities in the race tomorrow.”
Team Principal Marcin Budkowski acknowledged the frustration but pointed to genuine progress across the Baku weekend. “Checo has shown promising pace all weekend, making the most of the upgrades we brought here, but we didn’t manage to convert it into a good position today,” Budkowski said. “We made several changes on Valtteri’s car for qualifying which made him much happier with the performance, but his best lap was deleted due to a double waved yellow flag.”
The race on the 20-turn, 6.003-kilometer street circuit gets underway at 3 p.m. local time, with both drivers pointing to Baku’s unpredictable nature as a potential route back into the points.