Ride along with Charles Leclerc as he takes pole position in Azerbaijan

Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images

This view of Leclerc’s qualifying run illustrates how tricky the Baku City Circuit can be

With its long straights, elevation changes, and tricky turns the Baku City Circuit is one of the tougher courses on the Formula One circuit. But for the third-straight season, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc tamed the Azerbaijan circuit, qualifying on pole position.

Thanks to a video shared by F1, you can see his entire qualifying run, which puts the tricky circuit on full display.

Before diving into the video, first we need to take a look at the various elements which make Baku a tough track to navigate. As you can see from a look at the street course, drivers have to contend with a number of 90-degree turns at the start, the twists of the “castle” section as drivers face an elevation change that leaves them unable to see the track for a brief moment, and then an all-out sprint following the left-hand turn at Turn 16 back to the start/finish line:

In the below video you’ll see Leclerc contend with those initial 90-degree turns, starting at the eight-second mark as he enters Turn 1. That sets him up for a quick sprint along the right side of the track before he enters Turn 2, and then it is another longer straight before he deals with the quick turns at Turn 3 and Turn 4, with Turn 3 the spot which swallowed up both Nyck de Vries and Pierre Gasly during qualifying. You’ll see Leclerc deal with that portion at the 29-second mark of the video.

Then it is into the second sector, and some of the technical elements of the circuit, as described to me by Lando Norris earlier this week. The most notable is the “castle” section, which starts with a tight right-hand turn at Turn 7 (which comes at the 57-second mark) before the next four turns as drivers climb a bit, losing sight of the track for a moment.

From there, Leclerc winds into the third sector, making the left-hand turn at Turn 16 (1:20 into the video) before a full dash back to the start/finish line on one of the longest full-throttle sections of the entire season.

As F1 themselves described it, this is a virtuoso performance from Leclerc:

A virtuoso qualifying performance from @Charles_Leclerc

Watch how the Ferrari driver topped the charts in Baku #AzerbaijanGP @pirellisport pic.twitter.com/3e0HzYErkB

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 28, 2023