Lewis Hamilton claimed the 66th pole position of his Formula One career at the Baku International Circuit on Saturday afternoon to move into second on the all-time pole list. He only needs to more pole positions to equal seven time world champion Michael Schumacher, who currently holds the record for the most pole positions by any driver in the series.

This was Lewis' first pole position around the streets of Baku, his fifth of the 2017 season, and his seventh in 10 races.

Teammate Valtteri Bottas, who was holding firmly to top spot up until Daniel Ricciardo brought out the red flags when he hit the wall with just over three minutes remaining, will start alongside his Mercedes teammate in the team's second front row lock out of the season.

“A diva our car might be but the engineering team and drivers are gradually learning how to talk to her,” said James Allison. “This was a pretty impressive performance with both cars, and especially the performance on the last run, when we were able to set a competitive time on the first lap using tyres which have been tricky to warm up sufficiently during the rest of the weekend."

"This is not an easy track, and it has not been an easy weekend so far, but today's result is a good indication of the steady progress we have made through each session. We will be aiming to build on that tomorrow"

Third quickest was the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen who out-qualified his teammate, Sebastian Vettel by almost two tenths of a second. As it was the two Prancing horses were over a second off the blistering pace set by the Mercedes duo.  Vettel has had his share of problems here this weekend so fourth was a good result under the circumstances.

Max Verstappen, who has also had issues during Saturday's final free practice session, was fifth overall ahead of the two Force India's. Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon.

Lance Stroll, who secured his first ever Q3 performance on Saturday, stunned the onlookers by beating his super experienced teammate, Felipe Massa, the duo starting 8th and 9th on the grid with Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top ten after his late accident.

Both McLaren's have huge grid drops that will see them start from the back of the grid, along with Renault's Jolyon Palmer, who failed to set a time due to an engine fire in FP3.

Azerbaijan GP Qualifying Results
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:40.593
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, +0.434
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, +1.100
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, +1.248
5. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, +1.286
6. Sergio Perez, Force India, +1.518
7. Esteban Ocon, Force India, +1.593
8. Lance Stroll, Williams, +2.160
9. Felipe Massa, Williams, +2.205
10. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, +2.821

  1. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1:43.186
    12. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:43.347
    13. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 1:43.796
    14. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 1:44.267
    15. Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber, 1:44.603
    16. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:44.334
    17. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 1:44.468
    18. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:44.795
    19. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1:45.030
    20. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, --