Qualifying summary and results - Vettel takes 3rd pole in a row!

At the top, it was a good session for Kimi Raikkonen, who finished in first, after Vettel’s Ferrari already had topped FP3. Ferrari’s one-lap pace has been praised a lot in 2018, but Lewis Hamilton was a close second, which is a good sign for a struggling Mercedes team.

The story of Q1 was Toro Rosso, as Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley almost had a very high-speed crash. Hartley was driving very slowly as he had a puncture, and Gasly approached with almost 200 mph. Gasly júst dodged Hartley with a fantastic reaction, but that could’ve been very ugly.

Both Williams cars made it out of Q1 for the first time this year, and Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren was the biggest surprise who didn’t make it out. The other people eliminated were Pierre Gasly, Marcus Ericsson, Brendon Hartley and Romain Grosjean (no lap

Q2 featured a few surprising cars as Charles Leclerc and both Williams cars made it there. Something very unusual was that both of those Williams cars finished in P11 and P12, above Alonso. McLaren has looked very bad so far in Baku, and P13 and P16 qualifying finishes are very disappointing, to say the least.

In the end, Raikkonen had the best time, beating both Mercedes cars in P2 and P3. The other people missing out on Q3 were Charles Leclerc in P14 and Kevin Magnussen in P15.

 Five teams made it into Q3 with both of their cars. The Big Three were represented by both drivers, and so were Renault and Force India. Vettel set the fastest lap early on and never looked back, really. Hamilton and Bottas were three tenths behind the German, who proved to be the quickest in qualifying for the third time in a row now. 

Kimi Raikkonen looked to beat his teammate at the death of Q3 as he had two purple sectors, but the Finn lost the rear-end of his car in the final sector which cost him a lot of time, ruining his hot lap. If it's any consolation, it was very nicely saved. Raikkonen will start from P6, with both Red Bulls in front of him (P4 Ricciardo P5 Verstappen).

Force India is starting to look like the team they were last season again, as Ocon secured an impressive seventh place, just in front of his teammate Esteban Perez in P8. Hulkenberg secured P9 but will start from P14 as he was hit with a five-place penalty for replacing his gearbox. That means Carlos Sainz, who qualified in tenth, will start from ninth.