An optimistic Lewis Hamilton went in to Saturday’s qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix believing he would be ‘shooting for pole’.Instead, the seven-time world champion was left in a state of shock after he was eliminated in Q2. Hamilton, who will start Sunday’s race in 12th, was joined by Fernando Alonso, Gabriel Bortoleto, Lance Stroll and Oliver Bearman in the Q2 scrapheap. It was a crushing state of affairs for Hamilton given he was the fastest and fourth-fastest on the grid during the second and third practice sessions respectively.Hamilton reacts to crushing Q2 exit“I’m obviously so disappointed,” Hamilton said on Sky Sports’ coverage.“Yesterday the car was feeling good, today there was a direction that we ended up going, which on paper looked like it was the best place for us to be.“Our pace had been good. We’d been progressing, I was feeling really on it, didn’t make any mistakes, didn’t see me down any exit routes. It was just that we didn’t have the right tyre on at the end.“It’s tough. Everyone ahead of me basically had the medium tyre on, but I lost a medium tyre in P2 due to run-plan schedule, and that put me on the back foot.”To compound Hamilton’s qualifying woes further, he revealed he wanted to head back to the pits for a quick pit-stop so he could refuel and return to the track for one final lap.It was a strategy Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc adopted, however the Brit’s request to follow suit was ultimately denied by the team.When asked whether he had the opportunity to pursue a similar tactic to Leclerc, Hamilton said: “Yeah, but the choice wasn’t taken to take it.“I wanted to but they said that the warm-up was too long or something like that, so then we run out of time and run out of fuel. Not great, but we’ll take it internal.Hamilton is yet to finish on the podium this season, having picked up three fourth-place finishesGetty“As I said, there’s been lots of positives from this weekend. I’ve really felt on it.“I honestly thought I was going to be shooting for pole today, so it’s kind of a bit of a shock. I’ll take it on the chin and keep trying.”Qualifying chaos as record number of red flags brought outLeclerc performed better than Hamilton did during qualifying, but ultimately not by much.The Monegasque driver will begin Sunday’s race in 10th, although he gave Ferrari’s crew plenty of work to do after he crashed at Turn 15.Leclerc was one of several drivers who battled with the circuit in Baku, as a record six red flags came out due to multiple crashes.Williams driver Alexander Albon brought out the first of three red flags in Q1, with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto adding to the chaos.Starting grid for Azerbaijan Grand PrixP1: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)P2: Carlos Sainz (Williams)P3: Liam Lawson (RB)P4: Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)P5: George Russell (Mercedes)P6: Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)P7: Lando Norris (McLaren)P8: Isack Hadjar (RB)P9: Oscar Piastri (McLaren)P10: Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)P11: Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)P12: Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)P13: Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)P14: Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)P15: Oliver Bearman (Haas)P16: Franco Colapinto (Alpine)P17: Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)P18: Esteban Ocon (Haas)P19: Pierre Gasly (Alpine)P20: Alexander Albon (Williams)Haas’ Oliver Bearman was the only driver to cause a red flag in Q2 when he smacked the barriers at Turn 2, before Leclerc and championship leader Oscar Piastri forced two more red flags in Q3.Ultimately it was four-time world champion Max Verstappen who survived the chaos in Baku to secure pole position, with Williams’ Carlos Sainz joining him on the front row.Verstappen will hope to take full advantage of being on pole given he is third in the drivers’ standings behind Piastri and Norris.Ahead of Sunday’s race, Verstappen sits on 230 points, with his haul 63 points behind Norris and 94 off of Piastri.Sunday’s race gets underway at 12pm.F1 2026 hotel stay and ticketsExperience the thrill of Formula 1 in Spain or Singapore in the 2026 season.The packages include flights from various UK airports, a 7 night hotel stay, daily breakfast and a range of exclusive additions to get you all settled in.From there, enjoy a 3-day general admission ticket for practice, qualifying, and race day itself at two of F1’s iconic events.Prices for the Spanish Grand Prix Experience start from just £649 and more info can be found here.The Singapore Grand Prix Experience is available from £1,399 and full details can be found here.