Piastri makes front row in Baku after Norris calamity

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc has taken pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row, with Australian Oscar Piastri on the front row of the grid after finishing runner-up in qualifying.

But Piastri's teammate and world championship contender Lando Norris suffered a qualifying nightmare and will start 16th.

Piastri enjoyed a blistering final lap, despite flirting with the wall on the Baku street circuit, to join Leclerc on the front row, splitting the Ferraris with Carlos Sainz finishing third quickest.

Sainz will be alongside Red Bull's Sergio Perez on the second row.

But Red Bull's championship leader Max Verstappen, 62 points ahead of Norris with eight rounds remaining, qualified only sixth.

RB's Daniel Ricciardo could only finish 16th, four places behind his Japanese teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

Norris's title hopes were dealt a huge blow after he suffered a shock elimination from the first part of qualifying.

The British driver had been expected to turn up the heat on Verstappen, having taken 16 points out of the three-time world champion's title lead across the last two races.

But the 24-year-old said he was caught out by yellow flags down the long final straight, backing off and being unable to improve his time in Q1.

Norris was on what seemed to be a lap fast enough to progress to Q2 but he told Sky Sports that he had to slow down because of a yellow flag that was apparently for Esteban Ocon's slow-moving Alpine.

He missed making the 15-driver cut for Q2 by just 0.137 sec, finishing 17th.

But he moved up a place to 16th after Alpine's Pierre Gasly, who qualified 13th, was disqualified for a fuel flow irregularity, but was still allowed to start the race.

McLaren boss Andrea Stella said his team were discussing with the governing FIA why the yellow flag was triggered by Esteban Ocon's Alpine, which had not stopped.

"There's a long race ahead, we have some good tyres in the bank, I'm still hopeful we can get a good result. I think the car is quick. Bit frustrating, but nothing I can do," Norris shrugged.

The weekend has been dominated by talk of team orders, with McLaren deciding to prioritise Norris over Piastri for the remainder of the season.

But the title challenger was unable to deliver on his end of the bargain as the notoriously unpredictable streets of Baku claimed another victim.

It was not plain sailing for leader Verstappen, who complained "I'm nowhere" over the radio during a difficult first session before he posted the fastest time in Q2.

The Dutchman, though, will take heart from seeing his main title challenger down at the wrong end of the grid.

Leclerc, who harbours outside championship hopes of his own after victory in Monza a fortnight ago put him 86 points behind Verstappen, had looked quick in every session - despite crashing in first practice on Friday.

The Monegasque loves qualifying here on the shores of the Caspian Sea and he showed that again by finishing over three tenths clear of Piastri.

British driver Oliver Bearman, on his first full weekend in F1, narrowly missed out on reaching the top 10 as he finished 11th in the Haas.

The 19-year-old from Essex, who was parachuted into Sainz's Ferrari ahead of qualifying at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in March, is deputising for the banned Kevin Magnussen at Haas.