24–26 Sep · Baku · Round 15
Weekend previewBaku races on Saturday this year. The long straight rewards efficiency; the old-city walls punish every mistake.
MET Norway · CC BY 4.0 · updated 2 hours ago
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was originally due on Sunday 27 September. Formula 1 and the FIA moved it to Saturday 26 September at the promoter’s request, to accommodate a national day.
The entire programme moved with it. Practice starts on Thursday, qualifying is Friday, and race picks lock on Saturday. The sessions are in their usual order; only the days changed. Formula 1 announcement (opens in a new tab).
Baku asks for low drag on its enormous straight and grip through the slow old-city section. Every setup gives something away.
Qualifying is where that bites. The 2025 session was stopped six times, a Formula 1 record, and six different drivers put it into the walls. Autosport on the record (opens in a new tab).
Speed from Turn 16 to Turn 1. The flat-out run is long enough to expose drag. A car that reaches the straight slowly keeps paying for it for almost two kilometres.
Commitment through Turns 8 to 12. The road narrows beside the castle walls. A driver who leaves margin loses time that cannot be recovered in that sector.
Lock-ups at Turns 1 and 3. Both stops follow high speed and offer passing chances. A weak front end costs lap time and invites an overtake.
Changes in braking points and tow strength. The exposed straights make the lap sensitive to gusts. A braking reference that worked on one lap can move on the next.
C1
Not used at Baku
C2
Not used at Baku
C3
Hard
C4
Medium
C5
Soft
Pirelli selected C3, C4 and C5. Baku generally produces low degradation, and the one-stop has often been the quickest route even when a softer range is available.
The strategic question is timing. A Safety Car can make a stop cheap, but waiting for one that never arrives leaves a driver on old tyres. The 2025 race stayed a straightforward one-stop after its early Safety Car. Pirelli’s selection (opens in a new tab).
Nine weekends, 57 incidents that ended in a red flag, a retirement or a stewards' collision note, each placed at the corner where the car stopped. Turn 3 has taken the most, and it takes them in groups: three in the 2021 qualifying hour alone.
Showing 57 incidents, All. Busiest corners: Turn 3, 11; Turn 15, 10; Turn 2, 7.
Came together with Colapinto at Turn 5 shortly after both pitted, spinning the Alpine, which recovered. Albon took a ten-second penalty and accepted blame. Formula 1's own race report and race control agree on Turn 5; Wikipedia's Turn 7 is wrong. Source
Collided at Turn 6 and both continued; stewards reviewed with no further action. No contemporary report covers it, so the FIA race control log is the citation. Source: FIA race control log
Jumped the start, dropped to last, then went into the barriers on the opening lap for his first retirement of the season. Formula 1's race report puts the impact at Turn 5; race control logged the recovery vehicle at Turn 6, which is where the car came to rest and where this map places it. Source
Clipped the inside wall with the front left at Turn 1 in Q1, breaking the steering rack. Source
The rear stepped out at Turn 2 in Q2 and he struck the barrier, breaking the suspension. Source
Lost the front end at Turn 4 and hit the wall rear-first. Source
Locked up and hit the Tecpro barrier at Turn 4, breaking the front wing and inflicting heavy floor damage. Source
Locked up under braking for Turn 15 in Q3 and hit the barrier. Source
Missed the apex on a flying lap in Q3 and struck the barrier. Sixth red flag of the session, a Formula 1 record. Source
Contact on the straight between Turns 2 and 3 while disputing the podium on the penultimate lap; both hit the barrier and retired. Stewards found neither predominantly to blame. Race control logged it as a Turn 2 incident, which is where it originated; the map places it at Turn 3, where the cars ended up. Source
Took a hole in the sidepod in first-lap contact with Stroll, ran on with no performance and retired on lap 14, the race's first retirement. Corner not named in any source found. Source
Crashed into the barriers at Turn 4 on his first Baku weekend. Source
Crashed at Turn 15. Source
Overcooked the braking into Turn 1 and hit the wall side-on, damaging the front left. Source
Locked up into Turn 15 and slid into the barriers, bringing out a red flag. Source
Clipped the inside wall at Turn 5 and came to a stop at Turn 6. Attributed to Turn 6, where the car stopped. Safety car. Source
Hit the wall at Turn 13, stripping the rear-left tyre off the car. Retired with suspension damage. Source
Locked up at Turn 3 and crashed into the wall, damaging the suspension. First red flag. Source
Hit the wall at the same corner, bringing the second red flag. Source
Hit the wall rear-first at Turn 15, damaging suspension and rear wing, and withdrew from the sprint. Baku's only sprint weekend to date. Source
Hit the barrier again moments later at Turn 2 and much harder, breaking the front wing and suspension. Red flag. Source
Locked up and hit the barrier at low speed at Turn 7, then reversed and carried on. Source
Locked up and hit the barrier at low speed at Turn 15 in Q2. Car undamaged. Source
Left-rear tyre failure on the main straight while leading with five laps to go. Red flag. Placed at Turn 20 because the failure came on the run out of it; the impact was on the straight itself. Source
Left-rear tyre failure exiting Turn 20 onto the main straight, into the barriers. Safety car. Source
Repeated Stroll's error at the same corner minutes later, misjudging the kerb. Source
Carried too much speed into Turn 3 in Q2. Source
Following Tsunoda, was distracted by the crash ahead and lost the Ferrari into the same corner seconds later. Ended qualifying and handed Leclerc pole. Source
Clipped the wall at Turn 15 minutes into Q1, bringing the first of four red flags. Source
Braked too late on his first Q3 run, locked up and hit the wall at Turn 3. Source
Ricciardo locked up attempting a move on Kvyat at Turn 3 and went down the escape road; both retired with collision damage. Source
Destroyed the car on a loose drain cover between Turns 2 and 3, loosened moments earlier by Leclerc's Ferrari. The session was cancelled and the chassis replaced. Track furniture rather than a wall, and a judgement call for the inclusion rules. Source
Crashed at Turn 7 with 25 minutes to go. Source
Crashed at Turn 2 fifteen minutes into the session. Source
Crashed into the Turn 8 wall, ending Q1. Source
Fastest in all three practice sessions, then locked up into Turn 8 in Q2 and hit the same wall Kubica had. Radioed 'I am stupid, I am stupid'. The kerbs at this corner were changed before the 2021 race. Source
Weaving to warm his tyres behind the safety car, he knocked a switch two positions and locked the rears under braking on the run down to Turn 15, spinning into the wall from sixth place. He was the only car to crash out of a race while not racing. Source
Ricciardo went for the inside at Turn 1 on lap 40 after being overcut; Verstappen moved late in the braking zone and Ricciardo hit the back of him. Both retired, both were reprimanded, and both were made to apologise to the team. Source
Put the rear of the car into the wall at Turn 4 and retired. Source
Perez struck Raikkonen's rear at Turn 2 under the safety car. Source
Made contact at Turn 2 during the standing start sequence. Source
Collided a second time at Turn 3, with damage sufficient to force Ocon's immediate retirement. Source
Sirotkin collided with Alonso and Hülkenberg on the straight after Turn 2, double-puncturing Alonso. Safety car deployed. Source
Clipped the inside of Turn 7 while running fifth and broke the front-right suspension, retiring on lap 25. Renault's own race notes give Turn 7; one other account says Turn 15. Source
Force India team-mates collided and left debris across the track. Pérez retired with front wing and wishbone damage. Source
Vettel ran into the back of Hamilton behind the safety car, then drew alongside and swerved into him. The most-discussed incident in the circuit's history. Source
Collided at Turn 3 on the opening lap, puncturing Bottas's front right. Source
Crashed heavily into the barriers at Turn 1 in the closing stages of FP2. Source
Slid into the wall at the exit of Turn 6 with 3m33s left in Q3, bringing a red flag, and started tenth. He won the race from there. Wikipedia places this in Q1, which cannot be right given he qualified tenth. Source
Sauber team-mates collided fighting for tenth, both continued. Source
Damaged his front wing against Hulkenberg's rear on the opening lap. Corner not named in any source found, so this is listed but not placed. Source
Touched the barrier at Turn 3. Source
Crashed at the exit of Turn 15 and lost a rear wheel, bringing an 11-minute red flag. Source
Touched the barrier at Turn 8 in the castle section. Source
Made contact with the wall and later rejoined. No contemporary report names the corner, so this is listed but not placed on the map. Source
Lost the rear at Turn 15 at the end of the session, in what Formula 1 called a near carbon copy of Ricciardo's crash there on Friday. The gearbox change earned him a five-place grid penalty. Source
Crashed in Q3 after taking the escape road at Turn 15 in both earlier segments, breaking the front suspension and bringing a red flag. Started tenth. Sources disagree on the corner: motorsport.com says Turn 11, Wikipedia Turn 10, another account Turn 9. All three are in the narrow castle-adjacent section; Turn 11 is used here as the most specific attribution. Source
Hadjar sits out a third race in Madrid with the wrist he broke during the summer break, and Red Bull has given no timeline for putting him back in the car. Baku on 26 September is the next round. Lawson has taken the second Red Bull at every race Hadjar has missed, with Tsunoda at Racing Bulls.
Mercedes says Russell needs a fresh power unit before the season ends and has not settled on where he takes the grid penalty. Toto Wolff says the team is still talking about it, with Baku the circuit most often named because overtaking there is cheap. Antonelli has already taken his at Monza.
After 14 rounds, Kimi Antonelli leads the drivers’ table by 81 points from George Russell.
View full 2026 standingsScored through round 14, updated 13 Sept 2026.
Formula 1 and the FIA moved the race from Sunday 27 September to Saturday 26 September at the promoter’s request, to accommodate a national day. Every session moved one day earlier, so practice starts on Thursday and qualifying is on Friday.
The weekend runs from Thursday 24 to Saturday 26 September 2026 in Baku. Qualifying starts at 16:00 Baku time on Friday and the 51-lap Grand Prix starts at 15:00 on Saturday.
Yes. The 6.003-kilometre Baku City Circuit uses public roads, including the narrow section through the old city and the long flat-out run to Turn 1.
Choose five drivers for qualifying and five for the race. Saving them needs a free account.
The leaderboard shows the current standings. Predictions this weekend covers every session that is still open.