Hello and welcome to ESPN's coverage of qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Having been all at sea yesterday in Friday practice, a set-up change for Vettel appeared to have worked wonders in FP3 as he comfortably topped the session. Vettel looks like the favourite for pole, but let's see if Mercedes can find some time once the engines are turned up. That long, 2km straight at the end of this circuit still a huge factor to a lap.

The battle behind the front should be interesting. Red Bull didn't get much of a good chance to complete a decent qualifying simulation in FP3 and looks to have dropped off the pace it showed on Friday. That final straight should still be quite disadvantageous in this session. Force India looked very strong in that final practice session too so might well be sensing its chance to get both cars into Q3.

The Baku Street Circuit is a tough old circuit and all weekend so far drivers have been struggling to find where the limits are. Sergey Sirotkin's FP3 ended with his Williams smashing into the wall at Turn 3 in the closing minutes, but it sounds like the team has managed to fix his car ahead of this session.

Q1 is under way!

Big scramble to get out on track early, but both Red Bull drivers have stayed in the garage. Going to be a busy circuit for the early 'banker' laps at the start of this session.

Teams are clearly concerned about the prospect of someone hitting the wall in this session.

Grosjean locks up and goes straight on down at Turn 3. That then triggers yellow flags, which compromises the laps of everyone behind. Going to be a few surprises in this session today I feel.

Grosjean kept his car out of the wall and has continued. Both Red Bulls have now emerged from the garage.

Grosjean has gone straight on at another run-off area and he's now complaining about his gearbox. "Something is broken," the Frenchman says and the response is immediately to turn his engine off. That's his session over.

So that will be P20 for Grosjean on tomorrow's grid.

Looks like the Red Bulls are running close together to give the second driver a tow down the long back straight - Verstappen is ahead of Ricciardo on track, so the Australian might get a bit of a boost in that final sector.

Ocon the early pace setter on a 1:43.929.

Verstappen leaps into P1 and is there for all of two or three seconds as Ricciardo moves ahead of him, 1:43.259 the new time to beat.

Vettel goes quickest and then is moved down to P2 by his teammate, Raikkonen now sits at the top on a 1:42.985.

Hamilton fourth, Bottas fifth. They've split the Red Bull drivers.

Ocon puts the Force India into P2, 0.036s behind Raikkonen. The Force India looking very pacey this afternoon.

Vettel improves on his best time and goes into P1....

But then so does Raikkonen on his next lap, setting a 1:42.538 to lead the session.

Hamilton's next lap is much better than his previous attempt and he's moved up to P2, splitting the Ferraris. He currently sits 0.155s down on Raikkonen.

Only one of the drivers in the drop zone have set a time - Ericsson. Alonso, Haryanto and Hartley also down there, along with Grosjean, who's session has already come to a premature end.

Alonso climbs to 10th with his lap. Vandoorne could only manage 15th with his, so he'll be under threat later in the session.

That's much better from Verstappen, moving into P2, 0.1s down on Raikkonen.

But the main attention should be at the lower reaches of the order. Gasly has spun on track and that's going to be a concern because he's right on the cusp of elimination. Teammate Gasly still hasn't been able to set a proper lap time yet.

Hartley has slowed down the backstraight...

Replays show Gasly nearly colliding into the back of Hartley on the run to Turn 15! That was nearly very, very nasty.

Gasly sounded very angry on the radio afterwards and you can't blame him, he missed by a couple of centimeters.

Drama in Baku!

Hartley and teammate Gasly almost collide

The time has expired. Gasly has not been able to advance. Nor has Stroll.

Leclerc escapes from the drop zone and goes up to 11th. Great lap.

Vandoorne can't advance! So dropping out of the session is Vandoorne, Gasly, Ericsson, Hartley and Grosjean.

Stroll actually managed to escape with his final lap, I thought he hadn't made the line in time for another attempt. Skin-of-the-teeth stuff for the Canadian teenager.

Gasly is still complaining about Hartley slowing on the racing line. Toro Rosso tells him he had a puncture but he's going to be livid with that either way.

Hartley on radio: "I tried to get out of the way, I'm so sorry". That's probably the worst place you could get a puncture or car issue as the kink means it's effectively a blind part of the circuit.

"I feel pretty stupid about Gasly," Hartley continues on the radio. I think he's going to be in for a visit to the stewards after that one.

Q2 is underway. Fifteen minutes to eliminate another five drivers ahead of the top-ten shootout.

Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull have sent their drivers out on the super-soft tyre rather than the ultra-soft. Less degradation and probably the more desirable tyre to start tomorrow's race on.

"I've just had a massive lock-up," Hamilton tells Mercedes.

Bottas puts in a 1:42.679. Looks like Raikkonen went off somewhere on the circuit behind.

Replays show Raikkonen locking up and going down the Turn 15 escape road. Stroll did the same thing a few moments later.

I think that compromised Vettel's flying lap, and maybe Alonso's too.

Verstappen's first lap was 0.222s behind Bottas' benchmark on the super-soft tyre.

Ten minutes left in the session.

Vettel is on a much better lap... until he gets a bit scruffy through Turn 16.

Vettel moves into third position, 0.336s off Bottas' pace but it looks like he lost a bit of time at that corner.

Tyres used to set the fastest lap in this session will be the starting tyres for everyone progressing to Q3.

Raikkonen has hit the wall and it looks like he's damaged his front wing.

Hamilton has gone into P1 with a 1:42.676.

Raikkonen is in the drop zone so he needs to nail his final attempt to progress to Q3.

Replays show Verstappen getting very, very close to the wall on the run down to Turn 15.

Looks like Raikkonen has taken a huge chunk out of his front left tyre from that lock-up at the same corner. Appears his front wing is undamaged, the original angle suggested he had some issue there.

Ferrari has a big job now to turn that car around in the final five minutes to get him out on track in time to set a flying lap.

Current drop zone is Sainz, Magnussen, Raikkonen, Leclerc and Stroll.

Sirotkin is under investigation for impeding Ericsson. He's currently sitting in eighth position.

The Russian rookie runs wide at Turn 16, loses a load of time over the kerbs. He can't improve on his previous time so he stays eighth. He's just 0.3s above the drop zone.

Vettel and Raikkonen have gone out on ultra-soft tyres. Raikkonen has slipped down to 15th so he needs to get himself through the session with a lap.

Verstappen and the Mercedes drivers have gone out on the ultra-soft tyre as well. I imagine those guys will peel off into the pit-lane at the end of flying laps to prevent having to start on that tyre. This will be more about understanding the warm-up of that tyre compound for the crucial attempts at the end of Q3.

No further action on the Sirotkin-Ericsson incident. We haven't heard anything about whether the Gasly-Hartley incident is being investigated.

Stroll moves into P7 with his most recent lap.

The clock ticks to zero, so these final laps now are the all-important ones.

Ocon and Perez go fifth and sixth.

Sainz goes eighth.... Hulkenberg goes up to sixth.

Ricciardo is suddenly in big trouble in ninth...

Raikkonen moves up to P1 on those new ultra-soft tyres, meaning he will start tomorrow's race on that tyre.

Stroll and Ricciardo doing identical lap times... Ricciardo then backs off!

Doesn't look like Alonso is going to improve.

Wow, it's so close but Stroll just misses out on beating Ricciardo into P10 and a place in Q3. Ricciardo would have been told to back off so he didn't switch his race start tyre, but that was under 0.1s of difference.

Dropping out: Stroll, Sirotkin, Alonso, Leclerc and Magnussen. Surprised to see Magnussen that low as he had looked to be in fairly good shape earlier in the weekend.

That would have been a nervy few moments on the Red Bull pit wall as Stroll closed in on the line.

Q3 is go! We'll know who is on pole for tomorrow's race in about 12 minutes from now.

Yellow flags will be interesting in this one. We've seen how they've compromised driver laps so far in Q1 and Q2.

Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari all running their cars in a line to get a tow for the car following the one in front.

Bottas jumps ahead of the two Red Bulls... then Hamilton goes into P1.

Vettel then goes into provisional pole by 0.3s!

Looks like Raikkonen got wide at Turn 16 and that compromised his lap. After the initial runs, he's P6.

Ricciardo tells Red Bull he brushed the wall at Turn 15, which might account for some of his 0.4s gap to Verstappen.

That's a hugely impressive lap from Vettel, isn't it. He's driving supremely well at the moment.

In the fight for best of the rest, Force India are comfortably clear of the two Renault drivers. Ocon leads Perez, Hulkenberg and Sainz.

The clock is ticking down and it's nearly time for the final runs of qualifying. Can anyone displace Vettel?

Hamilton does a purple first sector, 0.009s up on Vettel's previous time. Looks like he's pushing like hell.

But Hamilton's lost 0.244s on Vettel through the middle sector. Lots of work to do if he wants to steal this one from Vettel.

Bottas goes P2...

But Hamilton immediately moves ahead of him, but 0.179s slower than Vettel.

Fastest first sector for Kimi!

OH a huge moment for Raikkonen at Turn 16 when he was 0.2s up on Vettel.

It's cost him even more than that, Raikkonen can't improve on P6! His car nearly swapped ends at that corner and he did well to keep it going forward. Replays show Vettel nearly hit the wall at Turn 3 but pole position is his!

Great session in Azerbaijan and tomorrow's race should be fascinating, especially with two Mercedes cars there to attack Vettel at the start.

As last year proved... it can all get a little dramatic at this Baku circuit.