George Russell holds off Max Verstappen to win eventful F1 Azerbaijan GP

George Russell took a dominant victory from pole to flag at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to give his world championship hopes the shot in the arm they required. His Mercedes teammate and title leader Kimi Antonelli delivered a strong comeback to claim fifth from 16th on the grid, but the British driver clawed back 15 points on the Italian.

Russell led from the front of the field from pole into turn one and delivered a drive that was all but flawless, including managing two tense restarts after the safety car was called. He held off being hounded to the line by a quick Max Verstappen, his margin at the line just one-tenth of a second.

He held the place to beat Verstappen into second, who made a fine drive from eighth on the grid, with the Dutchman’s teammate Isack Hadjar in third. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were forth and sixth for Ferrari, while the defending world champion, Lando Norris, retired when he was hit after a clash between the two Alpine cars on a restart. His teammate Oscar Piastri had been in the podium places for much of the race until a late lock-up dropped him out of the points.

With the win, from being 81 points back, Russell has managed to close the gap to Antonelli to 66 points with eight meetings remaining.

His first win in Baku and his third of the year is exactly what the British driver needed and and, as he noted, drive “instinctively” after his difficulties with the car in the first half of the season. Certainly with confidence in Baku it paid off.

He has suffered poor luck but also struggled to adjust as well as Antonelli to the new regulations and the new cars. Yet when he is on it, as he was in every session in Baku, he all but untouchable. A repeat of this form and he might yet believe the title gap to his teammate does not quite seem such a chasm.

The result must also be considered a good return for Antonelli. Having made an error in qualifying, clipping the barrier early in the session, to come back to fifth was an impressive feat of damage limitation. It demonstrated the 20-year-old’s impressive racecraft, the second time he has been tasked with coming back in a dominant car, having driven from 19th to the win at Monza.

Russell held his lead on the short dash into turn one as Piastri moved up past Leclerc to take second, but Antonelli lost a place dropping to 17th. Verstappen was rapid too, moving from eighth on the grid up to sixth by lap two. The Red Bull was clearly quick as Hadjar and Verstappen then passed Norris for fourth and fifth on lap three.

Russell quickly opened a gap of over two seconds in front but Antonelli at this point was not making great strides forward, coming back to 16th by lap five then 14th a lap later. Verstappen, on a new engine, swept past an obliging Hadjar on lap seven to take third, putting him just under five seconds behind Russell. He caught Piastri on lap nine but the Australian held his place.

The leaders were settled until lap 31 when Alex Albon locked-up and crashed nose-first into the wall at turn five but was unhurt. Pit stops under the safety car followed, closing the field up, with Russell’s 11-second lead negated but also Antonelli now moved up with the pack in eighth place.

Racing resumed five laps later and Russell held his lead as Verstappen pounced to claim second from Piastri while behind them a three-car clash at turn one with the two Alpines clashing and shunting into a helpless Norris prompted another safety car.

A further restart followed with Antonelli up to seventh and Russell handled it again with cool control to hold the lead, while Antonelli moved to sixth then passed Hamilton for fifth on lap 42. That prompted a tense finish. Verstappen stayed within a second of Russell to use overtake mode but could not close quite enough to pass. He remained on his rival’s gearbox, putting immense pressure on the British driver, which Russell weathered with aplomb to take the flag.