Uralkali Haas F1 team drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin qualified 17th and 18th respectively for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday, Round 6 of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship 2021 at the Baku City Circuit, Baku.
Schumacher and Mazepin only attacked Q1 on the soft Pirelli P Zero Red tires. The action on the track was prematurely stopped with a red flag stop – Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin hit the barrier at Turn 15. 14 minutes remained on the clock when the session turned green. Schumacher was the first to record an opening run with a 1: 44.254 and Mazepin directly behind on a 1: 44.281 before a second red flag, this time for Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, returned to the pits at Turn 15.
With fresh tires and only nine minutes left on the second restart, both VF-21s went to work. Schumacher couldn’t improve on his earlier time in his first run, but his final flying lap gave him a 1: 44.158 to finish 17th on the grid. Mazepin took a 1: 44.238 on his opening tour and was in the pace to improve, but a back block at turn three ended his second attack, leaving him 18th overall.
Charles Leclerc took the second pole position in a row this season and the ninth of his Formula 1 career. Leclerc’s fastest Q3 lap of 1: 41.218 beat Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes by 0.232 seconds.
Nikita Mazepin: “To be honest, it’s the biggest disappointment I’ve had with my job since Formula 1. The pace of my internal team and me was strong all weekend. It was really annoying on my fast lap to make a mistake. ” If the tires are only there for this one lap. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to carry over the only laps-only mindset because wherever I come from fighting for that extra half-tenth or tenth, it can make the difference between pole or not. Of course we’re very far from that, but I’m still trying to get my 101 percent and it was too much today. I am very disappointed.”
Mick Schumacher: “Lots of red flags, lots going on. The track conditions have also changed quite a bit, which was expected, but on the other hand unexpected for me. Overall, we managed to position the car where we wanted it. ”But unfortunately I made a mistake at T5 on the last set that cost us some lap time. Overall, we’ve maximized what we had and now it’s time for tomorrow’s race. We saw a lot of action in qualifying and I think the action will be in tomorrow’s race. “
Günther Steiner: “It was another learning unit for our boys. You can learn a lot in qualifying like this – it was pretty exciting. There’s a lot to learn from things like the slipstream on this circuit. I think they learned a lot in a very short time. Hopefully this will help them in the future. Otherwise it was the best we could do today and we still have two cars intact. Tomorrow we go races. “
Check out our Saturday gallery from Baku here.
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