Check drivers' statements after qualifying for the Azerbaijan GP 2022

The king of poles, Charles Leclerc was again the best in the Azerbaijan GP standings and placed almost 0s3 ahead of Sergio Pérez, who starts from second position on the grid in Baku. Max Verstappen, the championship leader, starts from third.

Carlos Sainz failed again at the decisive moment and took the fourth best time, with a chasm of distance to the rest of the pack. George Russell leaves fifth, followed by Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Sebastian Vettel, and Fernando Alonso.

Disappointingly, McLaren did not make it to Q3. Lando Norris is 11th, with Daniel Ricciardo right behind. Completing the grid are Esteban Ocon, Guanyu Zhou, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, Alexander Albon, Nicholas Latifi, Lance Stroll, and Mick Schumacher.

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Check out the drivers' statements:

Charles Leclerc, pole: Leclerc says he is "extremely happy" for pole-position in Baku: "That one I didn't expect."

Sergio Pérez, second: Pérez regrets "hit the wall" in Q3 that took away his chance of pole in Baku

Max Verstappen, third : Verstappen admits mistakes at last attempt, but sees "good opportunity" in Baku

Carlos Sainz, fourth: Sainz regrets 4th place in Baku, but highlights progress: "I felt I was in the fight

George Russell, fifth: Russell says he is "shocked" by Mercedes more than 1s behind Leclerc in Baku

Pierre Gasly, sixth: Gasly thrills with best finish in 2022 and is excited: "Everything is possible in Baku"

Lewis Hamilton, seventh: Hamilton sees the 1s5 gap to Leclerc as "no surprise" and hopes for chaos in Baku

Yuki Tsunoda, eighth: Tsunoda celebrates AlphaTauri's "fantastic work" in Azerbaijan

Sebastian Vettel, ninth: "I need friends": Vettel jokes and says vacuum could have put Aston Martin in sixth

Fernando Alonso, tenth: Alonso plays down Albon's claim and expects Azerbaijan GP full of "traps

Lando Norris, 11th: Norris sees McLaren "struggling with car" in Baku, but says 11th on grid is "decent"

Daniel Ricciardo, 12th: Ricciardo sees himself "more comfortable" with McLaren in Azerbaijan

Esteban Ocon, 13th: "I'm obviously disappointed, it's the second race in a row that yellow flags have taken me out of the top-10 in qualifying. The pace was here all weekend, it's frustrating that I couldn't make the ideal time. But overtaking here is common, Baku is one of the most unpredictable circuits on the calendar. We need to take the opportunities that arise for us, there's no reason why we can't score well this weekend."

Guanyu Zhou, 14th: "We took a big step forward and I think we had the potential for much more than 14th place today. A place in Q3 was possible, the pack was very close. The yellow flags disrupted our plans to use new tires, but overall happy with the progress we made, hopefully we can get some good points.

Valtteri Bottas, 15th: "It was a bit of a weird qualifying, we are not where we would like to be. The tire temperature was a big factor, I suffered with the soft tires. And I still couldn't do the second quick lap because of the yellow flags. I know I should have done better, but it didn't work out. Our race pace looked good yesterday, anything can happen in the race, we can pass a lot of people and climb the field.

Kevin Magnussen, 16th: "When the red flag came out, there simply wasn't time to do another clean lap, everyone was bunching up at the end of the row. That's the problem with being at the worst of the pits, you end up behind in the line, we missed the last chance. Tomorrow is a long day."

Alexander Albon, 17th: "I think we had a good qualifying, we did our best as a team. We did everything right: we had a decent car, we did our best work. Going to Q2 looked difficult, but the red flag gave us the chance. It's frustrating to come so close and not pass, I'm 99% sure I would have advanced if it wasn't for a mistake in the last corner. But we know we couldn't have done much more than that, let's hope for action and chaos tomorrow, a crazy Baku."

Nicholas Latifi, 18th: "A typical Baku qualifying, with yellow and red flags. I didn't do a great lap on the first set of tires, I lost some gears in some corners, that was tricky. Then came the second set, but the red flag took me out of the race, but it would have been nice to be able to try to fit everything at the same time. Focus tomorrow, anything can happen.

Lance Stroll, 19th: "Obviously, I'm frustrated with the way qualifying ended. I simply went to the brakes too late in the second corner. After the first brake I gave, the car felt okay, so I knew I should try one more lap, time was running out, so I decided to go on."

Mick Schumacher, 20th: "We knew it would be tight, so it's frustrating that we didn't do the lap we had the most potential for. I was behind Stroll when he made a mistake and it cost me the lap, so I was left with only one lap when the track was still bad. Baku gives us a lot of opportunities, tomorrow is going to be a tough but fun race."