Having held championship aspirations ahead of the 2023 campaign, Ferrari have endured a torrid start to the season, but after the four-week break that followed the Australian Grand Prix they delivered a huge upturn in performance at the Baku City Circuit.

Having set an identical time to world championship leader Verstappen on their first runs in the final part of Qualifying, Leclerc was then able to improve with a 1:40.203 to top the Dutchman by almost 0.2s, with Sergio Perez a further tenth back in third in the other Red Bull.

• How new F1 Sprint format will work in 2023
• When to watch the Azerbaijan GP live on Sky Sports
• Get Sky Sports | Listen to the Sky Sports F1 Podcast

Leclerc will start from the front of the grid in Sunday's Grand Prix, before which there is a standalone double of Sprint qualifying and a shortened race on Saturday as Formula 1 debuts its newly approved format at the first of six Sprint weekends scheduled for this season.

Carlos Sainz was fourth for Ferrari, while Lewis Hamilton beat Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso to fifth, after his Mercedes team-mate George Russell was left 11th following a shock Q2 exit.

Lando Norris took advantage of McLaren's long-awaited upgrades to finish seventh, with rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri taking 10th.

Leclerc's third successive pole in Azerbaijan provided a thrilling conclusion to an action-packed session, which was twice interrupted in Q1 as crashes for AlphaTauri's Nyck de Vries and Alpine's Pierre Gasly brought out red flags.

Azerbaijan GP Qualifying Result
1) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
2) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
3) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
4) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
5) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
6) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
7) Lando Norris, McLaren
8) Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri
9) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
10) Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Qualifying starts with red flag chaos after crashes

There had been talk going into the weekend about drivers considering taking a cautious approach in Saturday's Sprint events, but it became quickly evident that wouldn't be the case in Qualifying for Sunday's Grand Prix.

No sooner than most of the field had completed their first runs, De Vries, who has struggled to live up to expectations thus far in his rookie F1 campaign, lost control at Turn 3 and shunted into the barrier.

The damage led to a near 15-minute stoppage as the AlphaTauri was recovered and the barrier repaired, and relative calm remained with more than 10 minutes of Q1 remaining upon the eventual resumption.

However, the tension would increase a few minutes later as Gasly, who had earlier caused a red flag in practice when his car caught fire, crashed at the same corner where De Vries had been caught out.

The red flag emerged once more as the Frenchman somewhat sheepishly apologised over team radio to the mechanics who had spent the previous two hours frantically working to get his car ready for Qualifying.

When the Alpine was cleared and the session resumed, there were only seven minutes left.

Kevin Magnussen was soon also eliminated as an electrical issue with his Haas, which had caused him to stop on track following Gasly's crash, persisted.

That meant there were only two elimination slots remaining, which were filled by the other Haas of Zhou Guanyu and Nico Hulkenberg, as Williams' Logan Sargeant took advantage oof the chaos to advance to Q2 for the first time in his rookie season.

Leclerc delivers under pressure

With the sun starting to set in Baku, providing a further challenge to the drivers as it hampered their vision in certain parts of the track, it was fortunate that no further red flags were required as the focus shifted to speed in Q2 and Q3.

Leclerc made it clear he was in the hunt for pole as only a very late Verstappen lap dislodged the Ferrari from top spot, while street-circuit specialist Perez was also displaying strong pace.

Having delivered an encouraging performance in Australia, Mercedes were suddenly in danger of a surprise Q2 exit, with Hamilton eighth and Russell ninth ahead of the final runs.

Improvements from Tsunoda and Piastri bumped both the Silver Arrows down two places, knocking Russell out in 11th and leaving Hamilton to scrape through in 10th.

The stage was set for a Q3 finale, and Leclerc and Verstappen, who delivered so many entertaining duels in the first half of last season, delivered a show.

Verstappen went fastest on their first runs, only for Leclerc to set an identical time, which left the Red Bull ahead by virtue of having achieved the mark first.

However, Leclerc would not be denied a 19th career pole as he further improved to move comfortably clear of both Verstappen and Perez, while the brilliance of his lap was emphasised by a 0.9s gap to his team-mate Sainz in fourth.

Behind the battle at the front, Hamilton showed an impressive improvement from his earlier struggles to take fifth, having trailed the Aston Martin and McLaren cars that his team supplies with engines in Q2.

Formula 1 is back! Watch the Azerbaijan Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend. Saturday's Sprint Shootout at 9am, the Sprint at 1:30pm, and Sunday's race at 12pm. Get Sky Sports