George Russell clinches pole with 0.837‑second gap in Baku

Timing &amp; telemetry: OpenF1, from the official Formula 1 timing feed. Championship data via Jolpica/Ergast.
Cover: TELOS graphic, first published on Instagram .
Method: drafted from TELOS session data with AI assistance, then reviewed before publication. Every figure comes from the feeds above — none are model-generated.

Russell dominated qualifying, topping all three sectors and leaving the field within a whisker of each other, 0.837 seconds clear of the pack.

Carmine Pio Orzano · 25 September 2026 · 1 min read

First published on Instagram

George Russell secured pole position in Baku with a 0.837‑second advantage, topping every sector on the street circuit where margins are usually measured in hundredths.

The British driver’s lap of 1:42.526 left Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and Hadrien Hadjar bunched together, separated by just 0.137 seconds and sitting nearly a full second behind the leader. The tightly packed midfield will have to manage tyre degradation and track‑position battles, as any undercut or overcut could prove decisive.

Russell’s pole lap rewrote the usual Baku qualifying script.

The race kicks off tomorrow at 13:00 CEST, and TELOS’s model predicts a different winner before the lights go out. Save the post and check back after the Grand Prix to see whether the forecast held true.