'You just have to send it' – Verstappen reflects on magical Baku pole lap after incident-packed Qualifying session

Max Verstappen has offered his verdict on a thrilling and incident-packed Qualifying session after claiming pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver claimed back-to-back pole positions and his first on the streets of Baku after nearly two-hours and a Formula 1 record of six red flags during a session where Drivers' Championship leader Oscar Piastri was one of several drivers to hit the barrier.

With his final lap, and in sub-optimal conditions after drops of rain fell, Verstappen posted a 1m 41.117s to deny Carlos Sainz a shock pole position by just under half a second.

"Long Qualifying, to be honest, with so many red flags," said Verstappen.

"It was difficult to get your lap together because most of the time your tyres are not really ready, or a red flag happens. Especially Q3 with a bit of rain around, it was a very difficult session. On the final lap, you just have to send it.

"I wasn’t even on the best tyres that I wanted but because of all the red flags, we basically ran out of tyres. I’m very happy so far with how the weekend is going because I think from FP1 we were not too bad, and we just kept on improving a tiny amount and then we were there in Qualifying. That’s of course where it matters."

Verstappen bagged his sixth pole position of the season, more than any other driver, and heads into Sunday's 51-lap race having claimed victory last time out at Monza.

With the McLarens of Lando Norris and Piastri set to start seventh and ninth respectively, and comparatively slower cars immediately behind in Sainz's Williams and Liam Lawson's Racing Bulls, Verstappen was optimistic on his chances of another victory.

"Again, it’s a long race," he said. "You want to have a good start but even then, we just need to do our own race, look after our tyres because it’s still quite tough on the tyres around here because of the softer compounds. We’ll see what happens."

Team mate Yuki Tsunoda enjoyed his best Qualifying of the season for Red Bull, finishing sixth but believing more might have been possible as he looks to finish in the points for the second time in three races.

"I take it as a positive," he said. "P6 is the highest position I've ever taken at Red Bull.

"This kind of Qualifying, anything can go wrong so obviously I'm not really happy with the Q3 run but at the same time, P6 I'll take it and looking forward to tomorrow."