Russell survives late Verstappen charge to win Azerbaijan GP

George Russell survived two late safety cars and a Max Verstappen charge to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from pole position and claw back points on championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who recovered from 16th to fifth.

Russell had been poised to dominate the race, nailing his start to put himself securely in the lead at the first turn. He then put more than a second on Oscar Piastri — who passed Charles Leclerc for second place off the line — at the end of the first lap, ensuring the Australian couldn’t benefit from the extra battery capacity of overtake mode.

Gradually eking out his advantage from there, he was 3s to the good at the end of lap 5 and 10s at the end of lap 25 to put his lead beyond doubt.

But a pair of safety cars put what should have been a dominant victory in jeopardy.

The first was for a crashed-out Alex Albon at Turn 5, eliminating Russell’s advantage but putting everyone on the same pit strategy.

A well-executed restart kept him in the lead, but Verstappen, who had risen from eighth to third in the first seven laps, pinched second place from Piastri.

The safety car was called again almost immediately for a three-car crash at the first turn, where Franco Colapinto missed his braking point and wiped out teammate Pierre Gasly, who in turn skittled Lando Norris. All three were eliminated from the race.

Verstappen, on the preferred soft tire, was eager to get a shot at the lead, and he pressured Russell hard as they prepared to resume the race, at one stage running side by side with the Mercedes at Turn 16.

Russell’s restart was good, but Verstappen was able to keep with him, capitalizing on overtake mode to keep himself within a second.

The Dutchman was relentless in pursuit as he attempted to pressure Russell into an error, at one point even nudging the barriers entering the critical Turn 16 as he attempted to widen the corner.

Rather than a mistake, Verstappen’s chance came in a bizarre bit of race management on the final lap, when Valtteri Bottas crashed at Turn 15 but didn’t elicit even a virtual safety car.

The need to avoid the stopped Cadillac allowed Verstappen to close onto Russell’s tail, and the Englishman appeared to lose some electrical deployment as a result of lifting for the local yellow flags.

Verstappen slipstreamed the Mercedes down the long front straight but ran out of road. Russell took the checkered flag first by just 0.196s, the narrowest victory margin since the 2002 United States Grand Prix in Indianapolis.

It was his third victory of the season and his first since June’s Austrian Grand Prix.

“Amazing to be back on the top step of the podium,” he said. “I want to say a big thanks to my team. They continued to believe in me through the tough moments, helped me come through it, and I’m really proud to have had this weekend.”

The victory reduced what had been an 81-point title deficit to 66 points.

“My teammate’s had an incredible season, he’s been pretty flawless throughout,” he said, “but now we’re getting to crunch time.

“I’m just going to focus on myself. If I continue delivering performance like I’ve done this weekend, no matter what happens towards the end of the season, I’ll be happy, because it’s been a real rough period for me and I feel like I’ve come through the other side.”

Verstappen was pleased to have been so competitive despite falling short of what would have been his first victory of the season.

“We had a good race,” he said. “To the line I got close, but it was not enough.”

Isack Hadjar collected his second podium of the season, picking up the place when Piastri locked up into the first turn at the second restart and dropped out of the points.

The Frenchman had Verstappen’s pace in the first stint when he was on the softs, but on mediums he didn’t have the same speed, and he spent the final stages of the race keeping ahead of Leclerc to lock in the position at his first race back from injury.

It was Red Bull Racing’s first double podium finish since the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix.

“It’s been very long six weeks,” he said of his recovery time.

“I’m very, very happy for an actual first proper podium on pure pace. I’m very, very delighted.”

Leclerc finished fourth ahead of Antonelli, whose recovery drive was methodical but slow. The Italian lost a place off the line but was back up to 10th on lap 17 and eighth at the first safety car.

He benefitted from Gasly being taken out of the race at the restart, and he then made short work of Lewis Hamilton for fifth on lap 43, though by then Leclerc and Hadjar had opened too great a gap for his progress to take him any further.

Hamilton finished seventh ahead of Arvid Lindblad, who pinched the place from Esteban Ocon over the line by just 0.03s, having dispatched Haas teammate Oliver Bearman three laps earlier.

Esteban Ocon expertly picked his way through the restart carnage, including by picking the pocket of teammate Oliver Bearman, to rise to eighth ahead of the sister Haas car in ninth.

Carlos Sainz secured the final point of the race for Williams with three laps remaining, demoting Nico Hulkenberg to a scoreless 11th.

Liam Lawson was a frustrated 12th after being tagged and spun by teammate Lindblad at the first safety car restart.

“Man, I love getting taken out by my teammate,” he radioed. “That’s pretty sick.”

Gabriel Bortoleto finished 14th ahead of Piastri, Sergio Perez and the classified but crashed Bottas.

Colapinto, Gasly, Norris and Albon joined Aston Martin teammates Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll on the retirement list.

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