Charles Leclerc qualified second for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the Baku City Circuit, but the Ferrari driver admitted the 0.837-second gap to polesitter George Russell was far larger than the team anticipated, while team mate Lewis Hamilton finished sixth after being left without a tow during the final Q3 run.

Leclerc posted a time of 1m 43.363s on his final Q3 attempt, edging McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by a thousandth of a second to secure the front-row slot. Russell’s benchmark lap, however, proved untouchable as the Mercedes driver capitalized on a strong weekend and the early Qualifying exit of team mate Kimi Antonelli.

“I mean, honestly, it was quite a good lap,” Leclerc said. “Lewis was in front at three, four seconds, I think, and I managed to do a good lap at the end, but when I see the gap to George, maybe the lap wasn’t good enough.”

Leclerc acknowledged Ferrari had struggled throughout the weekend. “Overall, we’ve been on the back foot all weekend. We kind of expected to be very far off after a difficult Friday, but this morning I had a little bit more hope,” he said. “In terms of position, that’s where we expected to be, but in terms of the gap, it’s a lot more than what we expected.”

The session was further complicated by a breakdown in Ferrari’s intra-team towing arrangement. Hamilton, who qualified nearly half a second behind Leclerc, described being left stranded on his final flying lap. “What happened in Q3 is I was ahead of Charles, and on the normal rhythm we were behind somebody, so we were equally in a tow. Then they kind of changed the plan as we got to Q3, which meant I was 25 seconds behind,” Hamilton explained. “I had no tow at all — not even in the stream of other drivers. I was a sitting duck, basically, in that last one, unfortunately.”

Hamilton was candid about his prospects for the race. “It’s never looked good for me this weekend,” he said. “I don’t really know what to expect. I think all the cars up ahead are very quick, so I don’t really see much happening in the race for us. All the Mercedes engines are ahead of me, apart from Charles, so overtaking them, I think, will be pretty tough.”

Leclerc was more measured in his race-day outlook, pointing to Ferrari’s long-run pace as a potential advantage. “Our straight-line speed is not our strength, but the pace has been quite strong in FP1 for the high fuel, so I hope it will be the case tomorrow,” he said.