BAKU – The first significant error of Kimi Antonelli’s title campaign lands him on the Losers list after qualifying at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Here is PlanetF1.com’s full list of winners and losers from the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying.

Winners and losers from the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying

Winner: George Russell

Russell’s job may have been made easier by Kimi Antonelli’s session-ending mistake in Q1, but the British driver looked a very likely candidate for pole position regardless, after controlling proceedings during Thursday’s practice sessions.

Indeed, Russell was so in control of the session that he ended up securing pole with the biggest margin to second place of the entire season: the guts of a full second clear at the front.

“I’ve been feeling in a great spot this whole weekend,” he said afterwards.

“From FP1 I felt confident, I felt hooked up. As I’ve said recently, I’m just getting more and more on top of this car and what it requires, and it’s just all feeling more intuitive.

“I felt very confident we were in the running for pole, but when I crossed the line and I saw the gap, I was, yeah, I was shocked. I knew the lap was great.

“I had a nice slipstream at the end, which gave me an extra probably tenth and a half, two tenths, and it just all perfectly came together.”

There have been signs since the summer break that Russell has overcome the dip in form that emerged in the first half of the season, even prior to his power unit struggles, and this weekend in Baku could be just the break he needs to re-ignite any lingering chances he has of challenging his teammate for the title.

Russell didn’t put too much stock in this, pointing to his teammate’s mistake as being the very unique circumstance that it is in 2026, and reasoned that every title challenge has mistakes made along the way.

Instead, he’s looking inward, saying that he’s feeling back on top of his game, but downplayed the suggestion that it’s a breakthrough moment for him.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say so,” he said of that theory.

“It’s definitely just being perfectly hooked up for me this weekend so far. But, you know, me and my team have put so much work in to help me get on top of the limitations, and I think since the summer break it’s been great.

“The performance has been substantially better than the results have shown. So, you know, it’s three front-row starts in the four races since the break. I’m very pleased with it.”

It’s the type of performance that was widely expected of him on a regular basis this season, but is it too little, too late?

Loser: Kimi Antonelli

Since his practice crash at the season opener at the Australian Grand Prix, Antonelli has made precious few mistakes: certainly none more serious than harmless spins or off-track moments.

Crashing out early in qualifying in Baku was therefore very much an aberration in what has otherwise been a near-flawless championship campaign so far, and it has put him somewhat on the back foot in terms of a challenge for race day.

However, as he showed in Monza, the competitive picture means he can’t be ruled out of contention for the race win, even from 16th on the grid: the ease of overtaking at Monza suggests Antonelli might have similarly little trouble cutting through the pack and making use of the powerful slipstream effect to climb back up the order.

Indeed, Russell even made a joke about this, pointing to how Antonelli won at Monza starting from further back than he will in Baku.

As for the Italian, he was open about the fact he had made a mistake, and seemed cogent of how easily his championship momentum could falter if he allows incidents like these to creep in.

“I had a lot more headwind compared to the lap before, so the front just was much stronger, and I turned in roughly in the same spot. But, obviously, the car turned more, and I clipped the wall.”

But Antonelli didn’t appear too perturbed by his mistake, a positive sign ahead of what will need to be another recovery drive: with Mercedes’ pace, just how far can he go?

Winner: Charles Leclerc

A tidy tow from Lewis Hamilton, a few seconds in front of Leclerc’s Q3 effort, meant the Monegasque driver’s lap was good enough to slot into second place in the F1.5 battle behind Russell’s dominance.

“I felt hooked up as well, but maybe not to the right hook when I see the gap with George!” Leclerc said afterwards.

“It’s quite a significant gap. So, yes, I mean, the car felt better than what it felt for the rest of the weekend. We’ve had our struggles this weekend and we were definitely not as competitive.

“There are plenty of things that we should look at and try to improve, particularly because our weakness normally is straight-line speed, but today Sector 2 is also where George made the difference.”

Revealing that he has been leaving plenty of margin on the table due to a feeling of unpredictability from his Ferrari, Leclerc’s suggestion that Mercedes is out of reach was tempered by him pointing to the fact that he usually finds the car better in race trim compared to qualifying, meaning a salivating prospect for the race should he be able to keep pace with Russell.

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Loser: Arvid Lindblad

“I have no confidence, to be honest,” was Lindblad’s gloomy assessment after qualifying in 15th place.

It’s been a scrappy weekend from the Racing Bulls driver, with a crash on Friday followed up by multiple incidents of running wide into the escape areas on Friday.

The issue has been down to a lack of comfort under braking, which he revealed is inconsistent to the point of being unknown from corner to corner, lap to lap.

“I’m running a different car to Liam, as you’d expect when I crashed, so that doesn’t help when we’re not on the same stuff,” he said.

While he pointed out that he had lost quite a bit of practice time, Lindblad instead pointed to his own lack of experience in approaching a weekend being a bigger factor in terms of a learning curve: Baku is a weekend in which his rookie status has been evident, a rare occurrence in what has largely been an excellent year.

“I think there’s stuff for me to learn on how to approach these weekends and manage them in a little bit of a better way,” he said.

“Because I mean, it’s been two street circuits now where I’ve crashed in FP2 and hurt my trajectory to qualifying.

“We were struggling this weekend, so probably Q3 wasn’t possible. But definitely think if I’d managed things a little bit better, we could have been in a better place going into this session, and maybe a little bit of magic on my side could have been in Q3.”

The British-Swedish driver explained that he felt annoyed with himself, with this self-effacing streak becoming ever more apparent as his rookie season unfolds: perhaps not quite as pronounced as Isack Hadjar’s usual gloominess, but certainly pragmatic and exacting of his own standards.

“I enjoy the fact that I’ve been in Q3 almost every weekend for the last 10 or whatever,” he said.

“I enjoy that, and I’m just mad at myself because, more than anything, I don’t think I’ve been trying to be too special. I’ve hurt my trajectory for when it matters, and I haven’t delivered in the moment.

“I enjoy being able to sort of switch off the brain and just send it when it matters, and just go and have a bit of fun with it.

“But this week I haven’t really been able to do that, and I think I could have just managed things in a better way to do that. So, in the end, it’s all learning. There’s many things that I’m gonna learn always.”

Winner: Isack Hadjar

Speaking of Hadjar, welcome back Isack!

Having been missing since the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hadjar’s return – armed with a renewed contract for 2027 – has seen him pick up where he left off with a strong performance that compared very favourably against Max Verstappen.

Indeed, so favourably, that he actually outqualified his teammate by over half a second: although circumstances and misfortune affected Verstappen’s Q3 effort to ensure he wasn’t able to get in a full-bore lap.

“If I had been racing the last three races, then I would definitely be second on the grid,” Hadjar said afterwards, revealing his contentment with how his comeback weekend has unfolded after allowing himself time to ease back into proceedings.

“I just feel like it’s a tough track to come back to after two months.”

Still sporting a wrist support band as he spoke to the media, he said, “I told myself it’s mandatory not to touch the wall or anything. For a comeback, there’s no point taking a lot of risks, so I was really driving a bit under the limits the whole weekend.

“I had it really like under control, and I started having a bit more fun, and, at the end of Q2, I was actually taking risks, and actually I went away for the first time this weekend and had a lockup. So yeah, that was the smart approach.”

As for the race, if he makes a good start, he reckons Red Bull is in the mix with McLaren and Ferrari for the podium places.

Loser: Audi

In the battle of the midfield, two of the usual three teams fell off the boil in qualifying as neither Racing Bulls nor Audi drivers managed to make it into Q3.

The drop-off in form was more pronounced on Audi’s side, with both Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg knocked out in Q1 and facing a tough race on a circuit that doesn’t play to the strengths of the Audi power unit.

There was also plenty of anticipation surrounding the updated R26, on a weekend where it has gone through an extensive overhaul of aerodynamic components. But, at this early stage, sources have indicated the upgrades have not had an adverse effect on the car’s performance: they have delivered additional load and, while not fully fettled in just yet, the changes haven’t taken the car in the wrong direction.

“It’s something bigger that we need to understand,” Bortoleto said, revealing that the lack of pace was not as evident at Monza, another power-hungry circuit.

“It’s the first time we we don’t have the pace. I don’t think it’s [the upgrades]. The comfort is not there. But, for both of us, the whole weekend, we had no grip.

“If you don’t have grip, you cannot go fast in the corners. If you don’t go fast, you don’t make a lap time. It’s simple as that.

“I feel like we added downforce with the new upgrade, but it’s so weird. I don’t know what’s going on honestly. Like I felt like the upgrade worked, but I don’t know if other teams also brought something interesting or if it’s the straight line.

“Ask me this tomorrow. I’ll have a few more answers! Right now, we just finished qualifying, so it’s difficult to give you proper answers!”

Hulkenberg was similarly dismissive of the upgrade theory, pointing to how a yellow flag and lack of tow contributed to his elimination in Q1, and said he believes there’s potential to come from the updated R26.

“I’m confident we will understand it better in weeks to come and optimise it, extract more out of it,” he said.

” It did feel quite encouraging and decent yesterday from the get-go, so I have no concerns or question marks around it.

“I think it’s definitely better, but I think there is still more to to learn and extract from it.”

Winner: Pierre Gasly

Seventh place, and outqualifying Verstappen, was reminiscent of Alpine’s early-season performances, and the Enstone team’s capitalisation on Racing Bulls and Audi’s under-performance in qualifying means the battle of the midfield to be best of the rest behind the top four could heat up again.

Gasly had suggested that Baku wouldn’t be a ‘Monza 2.0’ when he spoke to media on Wednesday, but the consistency of performance to be able to place the car where it was in race trim in Italy suggests that, once again, Gasly is getting to the full potential of the car.

So much so, he even suggested that he could have beaten Lewis Hamilton’s time in P6…

“Great balance, great car,” he said, having also received a tow from Colapinto to help his efforts.

“I managed to get to Q3 pretty comfortably, and we were a bit unlucky in Q3; Franco went off at Turn 15 on my quickest lap and I was two and a half seconds behind to get a tow on the back straight so I lost two-tenths in 15 and I was a bit lonely in that back straight so… I think Lewis was on the table for us.

“There was even like a P6 to get out of it, and, on the second run, Lando went straight on. So it was game over after Turn 3. So I mean, considering that, still very very happy to be seventh.”

It was a similarly good day for Colapinto in the second Alpine, with the Argentine’s run in Q3 compromised by a lock-up that resulted in severe vibrations from his front-right tyre: “I might need to go see a dentist” was his cheery summary of his attempt.

Winner: Carlos Sainz and Williams

A majorly updated Williams, and a majorly improved performance in qualifying saw two much happier drivers speaking to the media after qualifying, having both made it through Q1.

It was Sainz who put in the eye-catching performance by making it into Q3 for the first time this year, although this was later sullied by a five-place grid drop for having failed to slow sufficiently for yellow flags.

“If I’m very honest with you, I think Q3 is a bit of an overachievement today,” Sainz smiled afterwards.

“I think, as a team, we nailed the the tyre strategy, we nailed the run plan. I nailed the laps. Honestly, I’ve done some serious laps today on the limit, and yeah, happy to show them because, this year, I’ve done some good laps and no one noticed, for P17 or P16.

“So happy that, this time around, it’s for a P9 in Q3, which feels good as a driver, to be honest, when you’re used to wins or podiums and you spend a year so far off and you get one chance to show and you show, it’s always a good sign.”

For Williams, showing up with two new, lightened chassis and a new floor hasn’t rectified the behavioural issues that Sainz and Albon continue to dislike, but the improved aero load and overall competitiveness of the car is evident, and suggests the team could have a brighter final quarter of the season, although the characteristics of Baku appear to be playing to their strengths regardless.

Points may continue to be a step too far but, on a weekend where some of the usual midfield runners are struggling, the potential is there.

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Winners and losers from the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Qualifying