AS IT HAPPENED

After three practice sessions full of incidents and drama, there was more to come in qualifying when Norris suffered a shock elimination in Q1 and missed out on the chance to fight for pole. That chance eventually fell to Leclerc, who continued his incredible run in Baku with his Ferrari driver.

However, a pair of penalties would drop Norris from P17 to P15, with Gasly, who was 13th, being disqualified from the session for a fuel supply failure and Hamilton, who was seventh, dropping to last place due to new powertrain elements – something Ocon and Zhou also opted for.

As the teams on the grid removed the tyre mats from their cars, it became clear that most drivers would start on the yellow-marked medium compound Pirelli tyres, while Albon, Ricciardo, Norris, Zhou, Gasly and Ocon would run on the white-marked hard tyres.

As the lights went out, polesitter Leclerc made a blazing run to maintain his lead over Piastri into Turn 1, with both Red Bulls making a move with Perez passing Sainz and Verstappen passing Russell under braking for Turn 2.

Behind them, Alonso, Colapinto, Albon and Bearman all held their positions at the tail end of the top 10, while Norris immediately got to work and climbed to twelfth by the end of the opening lap, passing several rivals and taking advantage of an early puncture for Stroll.