Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson sidled up next to Max Verstappen for the mandatory post-qualifying photo on Sunday, only to quickly be told to swap sides.

According to Formula One protocol, the driver who finishes in second place stands to the right of the pole position driver, while the third-place finisher stands to the left.

Either unused to the tradition or simply out of practice, Sainz and Lawson had stood, initially, in the wrong places. The drivers chuckled when they realized the error, before grinning at the flashing cameras ahead of them.

It summed up a chaotic Formula One qualifying session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which featured a record six red flags, a series of crashes (including one for world championship leader Oscar Piastri) and even a sprinkling of rain.

It became a day for the underdog -- one where Sainz and Lawson, two drivers whose 2025 seasons have been a struggle, seized the opportunity as the usual front-runners slipped up. Tomorrow's race presents both drivers the chance to transform frustrating seasons into something altogether more memorable.

The first signs of a tricky day ahead emerged in final practice, when all the drivers struggled with large gusts blowing across the circuit. Baku, on the coast of the Caspian Sea, is known as the "City of Winds." That made several corners hard for the drivers to predict in final practice. Modern F1 cars are so aerodynamically sensitive that even the slightest change in wind direction can have a big impact on their handling.

"It's completely unpredictable," Sainz explained after qualifying. "A car in mid-corner depends purely on its downforce, and 30 to 40 kilometers per hour (of wind) changes the downforce of the car dramatically. That's what we are getting every lap: a different level of downforce in the corner. It always catches people out."

Qualifying proved challenging on a circuit renowned for its difficulty, with strong winds persisting throughout. Three red flags in Q1 alone after crashes for Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto made clear this would be a session where keeping laps clean would be pivotal.

Lewis Hamilton found that out the hard way in Q2, when he ran wide on his first run and then found himself on the wrong tire for his final run near the end, causing him to drop out in 12th.

"I honestly thought I was shooting for pole today," Hamilton told Sky Sports. "It's a bit of a shock."

Baku has always leaned into its history for chaotic races. Its official slogan is "expect the unexpected," and the circuit's marketing team even came up with the term "Baku syndrome" a few years ago to explain shock results in the past. As calling cards go for tracks, it's a pretty good one.

But even by those standards, the final stage of qualifying on Saturday was still capable of shocks. The first was a crash for Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc at Turn 15. Leclerc had scored pole for each race in Baku since 2021, serving as one of his strongest tracks (even if he is yet to win). A lock-up at one of the toughest corners sent him straight into the barrier, ending his session early.

Before Leclerc's crash, Sainz, Lawson and Isack Hadjar had all put in early lap times to fill out the top three under the red flag. Being one of the first to set a time in Baku comes with a risk, reducing the chance of a tow to improve top speeds from cars ahead, but it also ensures avoiding incidents behind that could ruin a qualifying.

"You can start dancing to see if it rains a bit harder, no?" Sainz told his Williams team over the radio, watching the sprinkles of rain fall as the marshals cleared Leclerc's car in the hope of a shock pole position. Heavier rain would make it nearly impossible for the faster cars to set competitive times, potentially gifting Williams its first pole since 2014.

But by the time the session resumed, the drizzle had given way to patches of blue sky. Regular service would surely return. Right?

Wrong. Moments before Verstappen was due to cross the line, a record sixth red flag emerged in qualifying for the driver least expected to have duffed his car into the wall: Piastri. The world championship leader had only made a single costly error up to now this year when he slid off the wet track in Australia. Now, with the championship gap to teammate Lando Norris at 31 points, he'd just ended his qualifying without a time on the board.

With Piastri ninth on the grid, it opened the door for Norris to take advantage. But with three minutes and 41 seconds on the clock, Sainz still had P1 -- no one could set a time before the red flag.

A seventh red flag would give Williams its first pole since Austria 2014.

McLaren played it safe and sent Norris out first, but he too made an error at Turn 15, glancing the barrier with his front-right wheel. It was gentle enough not to cause any damage, but it cost enough time that he couldn't reach the pole -- or even the front-runners, eventually sliding to seventh in the final classification.

Norris told Sky after the session he thought it only cost him a couple of positions, the lap proving a challenge with rain remaining in the air.

"I'm disappointed," Norris said. "Of course I wanted more. Seventh feels like it hurts a bit, because that's not normal for us." His failure to truly capitalize on the first major Piastri error in six months, starting just two places further ahead, is the greater disappointment.

It was left to Verstappen to spoil the Williams party, the Dutchman inevitably keeping his cool where others had faltered. "In the end, it was only Max," Sainz said. "It had to be Max." But both Sainz and Lawson did improve on their final laps, clinching second and third place on the grid respectively, with Kimi Antonelli taking an impressive fourth amid his recent struggles.

"I think I've lost three years of my life!" Williams' team principal James Vowles told Sky Sports after the session. He explained how the team's focus on making sure its tires were within the right range for qualifying, after struggling in recent races, had paid off. The drivers could push earlier for a quick lap.

"We've nailed qualifying today, every time being on the right tire at the right time," Sainz said. "The moment that a top car was going to put a lap together, we were going to be those four or five tenths behind, like we are always."

Sainz's first year with Williams has been something of a struggle. Despite largely matching teammate Albon for pace on a Saturday, his Sundays have tended to unravel, be it due to mistakes by the driver, the team, or sheer bad luck. The 54-point gap between the teammates does not tell the full story of their seasons.

This performance was a reminder of Sainz's his enduring quality and just what he can bring to Williams. (He is still Ferrari's most recent winner in F1, remember.) He knew Williams would be a long-term project, but grabbing this opportunity has fueled fresh hope of potentially standing on the podium much earlier than anticipated.

Williams has not had a podium since George Russell finished second at the 2021 Belgian GP. It's the team's only podium in the last eight years. "I'm going to give it my best to give Williams a first podium," Sainz said. "If it's possible, great. If not, we will see."

For Lawson, third place was also a very timely result as Red Bull considers the composition of its two teams for 2026. The New Zealander has largely been in the shadow of rookie teammate Isack Hadjar, whose podium at Zandvoort has made him the front-runner to be Verstappen's partner from next year. Yet Lawson today delivered when it mattered. A return to Red Bull may be off the table, but it will be a big statement in making his case to keep his Racing Bulls seat for next year.

"We just had a lot of stuff going on earlier in the year that was making qualifying more difficult," Lawson explained. "It definitely wasn't a strong point. So it's important for me, more than anything. Obviously, it helps, these performances. But we need more than one. We need to keep the consistency." Yuki Tsunoda, the other driver whose future is intertwined with Lawson's, also used the chaos of Baku to qualify sixth, his best so far for Red Bull.

With rain possible for Sunday's race, there is definitely potential for further mayhem -- and opportunities -- in Baku. Norris and Piastri will both have eyes forward, eager to recover from disappointing days, even if both were dismissive of their win chances given Verstappen's pace so far this weekend.

But for Sainz and Lawson in particular, Sunday's race offers both a huge opportunity to change the narrative of their seasons and turn today's chaos into an even greater reward.

F1 qualifying went sideways in Azerbaijan -- and the underdogs came out on top