George Russell will start Saturday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix on pole position after delivering what he described as a "perfect" lap around the streets of Baku. 

Russell claimed his fifth pole of the season, and his first since winning the Austrian Grand Prix, with a stunning lap that saw him finish 0.837 seconds faster than Charles Leclerc. 

McLaren's Oscar Piastri was third ahead of Red Bull's Isack Hadjar and team-mate Lando Norris, with Lewis Hamilton only able to secure sixth after going off track during his lap. 

Pierre Gasly, last year's winner Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto rounded out the top 10, while it was a day to forget for championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

Antonelli will begin 16th on the grid after crashing out in the first session on his second lap, handing Russell a huge opportunity to make a dent in his 81-point lead. 

It is the first time since 2019 that Mercedes have started the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the front of the grid, though Russell believes the unpredictability of the circuit could throw up some problems and keep other drivers in contention for the race. 

"It's been a while so it definitely feels good. This was probably the biggest pole margin of my whole career, including my F2 and F3 days," Russell said. 

"The lap felt really sweet, the car's been feeling really great this weekend. On a track like this where you can hug it, it feels amazing. I was feeling good.

"Max was fast this weekend. I don't know what happened at the end. Maybe with the yellow flag at the end, he didn't get the last chance, so it would have been interesting to see.

"Perfect lap in the end, I was in a nice gap to Hadjar which gave me a nice little slipstream by probably another tenth or two."

WHAT A LAP GEORGE!!! pic.twitter.com/H0OsZYfQ9m

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) September 25, 2026

Russell has only managed two race wins this year, in Australia and Austria, with Antonelli putting together back-to-back wins to tighten his grip on the Drivers' Championship. 

"I'm feeling good. I think we're in a great place to go for a win. Of course, this is Baku and anything can happen," Russell added.

"Charles is probably going to be motivated to throw one down the inside at Turn One. Whatever happens, I feel confident that we can go for the win."

Antonelli already has eight victories to his name in 2026, at least two more than all of the other drivers combined (six in total). 

He is already the driver with the most wins in a single season without having won the world title, surpassing Piastri (seven last year), though the enormity of the task was not lost on him after admitting he made an avoidable mistake.

"The group was coming up very quickly, lap by lap. Obviously, I turned in, and suddenly I had a lot more front end than the lap before and touched the wall," Antonelli conceded.

"Mistake from my side. Very unnecessary. I'm very mad about it, and we'll try to do better tomorrow.

"The car has been very strong this weekend. George has been doing incredibly well, but we'll try our best to recover as many places as possible."