Fourth 'pole' in a row for Leclerc, which leaves Sainz wanting

• Starting grid Classification and times

• World Cup 2022 The pulse between Verstappen and Leclerc

He had to recover 47 thousandths and he took almost half a second out of the hat.

showed the hierarchical order in Ferrari with a

(1:41.359) that left

, leader of the table before the last attempt, giddy.

For the fourth consecutive race, the Monegasque will command the grid, although nothing should be taken for granted on the streets of Baku, where no one has repeated victory since 2016. Fourth place, behind

and

, represents a lesser evil for Sainz , abandoned by the muses in the final trances.

feel jubilant

with his tenth place, behind

and

.

There were reasons to think about that long-awaited first

with Sainz's 1:41.814, but Leclerc ruined them all with a sublime lap.

From the first sector, closed at 35.6, the superiority was obvious over his teammate, who made a mistake in turn 2. "I was going to look for the limit, that last tenth of the car and I was too aggressive with the accelerator", he admitted Carlos at the DAZN microphones.

Sainz felt comfortable from Q2, when he stopped the clock in 1:42.088, 13 hundredths off the lead.

With the necessary confidence on that track, where no one had repeated

until now .

Kissing the protections of turn 15, rushing every inch of the curbs, it seemed that Carlos' time had come.

But Leclerc's umpteenth appearance changed everything.

Given his speed, Red Bull would not find answers either, which had been exponentially improving its pace through the slow corners.

He needed to correct his recurring failures with the DRS and resolve that hint of internal rebellion in the garage.

Because last year's victory in Baku, added to the recent success in Monaco, had spurred Pérez even more, each day more determined to present battle to his leader.

And Checo did it again, with a special

on urban circuits.

Six hundredths of an advantage over Verstappen and an inordinate ambition for the race.

On Sunday you can expect anything in Baku, stage

During practice, Alpine had shown excellent top speed and Alonso was especially inspired in the last sector.

Something must have influenced the aerodynamic updates on the A522, with a striking reduction in the side pontoons, in the image and likeness of the Red Bull.

In theory, the fight was raised against the Mercedes, victims of a terrible

.

Although the AlphaTauri and even an Aston Martin also slipped in.

Alonso delivered almost half a second in Q3 against

.

And

didn't even get into the last upgrade, so this GP doesn't look too rosy for Alpine either.

An exit from the track by the Asturian, who had to take the escape route at turn 15, also left

in a very bad mood , who asked for a penalty by radio, since he considered that the Asturian had hindered him throughout the lap.

Before, only the red flag caused by

deserved mention .

On arrival at the castle, the Canadian went long and on the following lap, with manifest clumsiness, he smashed his front wing against the protections of turn 2. As he paraded back to the garage, with the penultimate time,

saved the honor of Aston Martin, just half a second from the head.

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• Max Verstappen

• Fernando Alonso

• Carlos Sainz Jr.

• Red Bull Racing