Russell narrowly holds off Verstappen to take victory over the line in chaotic Azerbaijan GP

George Russell survived a late challenge from Max Verstappen to secure his third victory of the season in a dramatic Azerbaijan Grand Prix that saw six drivers retire, including McLaren’s Lando Norris.

The Mercedes driver built on a strong start to control the first half, leaving Oscar Piastri to defend against the charging Red Bull pair of Verstappen and Isack Hadjar while Russell extended his lead.

An error from Williams’ Alex Albon shook up the race as the Safety Car was deployed and the Briton battled to hold on at the restart, but the action was halted for a second time when Franco Colapinto locked up, taking out his Alpine team mate Pierre Gasly and Norris.

With the field neutralised again, Russell came under immense pressure from Verstappen on the final laps and ultimately crossed the line just one tenth ahead, denying the Dutchman what could’ve been his first win of the season.

Isack Hadjar was third to clinch a double podium for Red Bull, with Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli taking P4 and P5 – the Italian made the most of the chaos in front to improve from P16 to the points.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was a lonely sixth ahead of Arvid Lindblad, who beat Esteban Ocon to P7 over the line, Ollie Bearman and Carlos Sainz as Haas celebrated scoring for the first time since the Monaco Grand Prix.

Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg placed P11 after losing out to the lead Williams with two laps to go while Liam Lawson settled for P12, the New Zealander left frustrated following contact with his Racing Bulls team mate.

With P13 belonging to Gabriel Bortoleto, Oscar Piastri wound up P14 despite running in the podium positions for the majority of the race. A lock-up dropped him outside of the points and he led Cadillac’s Sergio Perez as the last of the finishers.

Valtteri Bottas drove into the barriers late on and was the final driver to DNF, joining Albon, Colapinto, Norris and Pierre Gasly. The Aston Martin duo of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll also failed to finish due to separate mechanical issues.

AS IT HAPPENED

The tricky Baku City Circuit had already caught out plenty of drivers over the weekend, and even championship leader Antonelli – who had largely been faultless this season – wasn’t immune to the track’s challenges.

He hit the wall at Turn 1 in the opening segment of Qualifying, resulting in damage that ruled him out of the rest of the session. As a result, the Italian was set to line up in P16, significantly adrift of his dominant Mercedes team mate.

Russell had delivered a superlative lap in Q3 to secure pole position by the biggest margin of the year – 0.837s over Ferrari’s Leclerc. It gave him the confidence to target his first victory since Round 8 in Austria, but as previous races in Baku have shown, anything could happen.

Those behind Russell were remarkably close in Qualifying, with Piastri – eager for redemption after crashing out of this event in 2025 – and Hadjar lining up alongside one another on the second row, followed by Norris and Hamilton.

There had been some alterations to the order prior to the start, with Williams’ Sainz demoted from P9 to P14 due to a yellow flag infringement. Perez was also penalised after he impeded Piastri, though his position of P20 remained unchanged, while both Aston Martin drivers received grid penalties for the use of additional power unit elements, relegating them to the back row.

As the field took to their grid spots, it was revealed that there was an almost equal split between medium and soft tyres on display, with Russell, Norris, Gasly, Verstappen and Colapinto those in the top 10 to opt for the former.

Leclerc, Piastri, Hadjar, Hamilton, Bearman and the trio on the outskirts of the points had gone for the more aggressive strategy of starting on the red-walled compound, likely with the aim of making up places in the early laps. They were joined by Alonso and Stroll at the back, while everyone else – including the out-of-position Antonelli – bolted on the mediums.

After a clean formation lap, the five lights went out and Russell enjoyed a great launch as Piastri improved to P2, leaving Leclerc in the clutches of the second McLaren of Norris who had surged past Hadjar for P4.

Verstappen also gained spots from Gasly and Hamilton, carrying out a smart move down the inside to pass the Ferrari, but further back, Antonelli’s mission to move up the order had got off to a nightmare start as he dropped back to P17.

Meanwhile, his team mate had already opened up an advantage of 1.2s at the front of the pack and was seemingly under little pressure from Piastri, but the Red Bull pair were on the charge – Hadjar snatched fourth place back from Norris before the Briton lost out to Verstappen soon after.

That wasn’t enough for the Frenchman and he went after Leclerc next, sweeping around the outside of Turn 1 in an attempt to displace the Monegasque. Although he couldn’t quite stay ahead, he got the move done a few corners later to take P3.

Red Bull’s brilliant first stint continued as Verstappen similarly dispatched Leclerc with ease, prompting Piastri’s race engineer to encourage the Aussie to keep them “out of range”. However, it didn’t take long for Hadjar to get within a second of the McLaren, with his team mate posting the fastest lap of the race almost simultaneously.

That meant that it wasn’t a surprise when the Dutchman powered past Hadjar down the main straight following an instruction from the team, and he rapidly closed up to challenge Piastri, who was fighting to cling onto second place whilst reporting concerns with his rear tyres.

Elsewhere, Antonelli had overtaken Lindblad, Sainz and Ocon to take P13, but his deficit to Russell was looking more difficult to overhaul with every lap as the Briton eked out a lead of 5s, calmly controlling the race.

The first yellow flag of the day was shown on Lap 9 as Aston Martin ordered Stroll to stop with a water pressure issue – the Canadian pulled off in a safe spot, preventing the need for any intervention from race control.

While Piastri, Verstappen and Hadjar ran within less than 2s of one another, Antonelli patiently waited to capitalise on a similarly close battle between Racing Bulls’ Lawson and Williams’ Albon, which allowed the Italian to eventually pass both and creep closer to the points.

There was another change among the frontrunners as Norris locked up and went deep at Turn 5, offering Hamilton the perfect opportunity to set his sights on P6. The narrow section of the track enabled the McLaren driver to stay ahead temporarily, but once it opened back up, Hamilton found a way through.

Their short contest demonstrated just how tight the field was as the soft tyre runners entered the pit window, with no one wanting to be the first to head in and subsequently tumble down the order.

However, Verstappen was starting to struggle as he reported that his medium tyres were “not good”, leading to an odd exchange within the team – Hadjar questioned the Dutchman’s pace and asked Red Bull to “tell him to keep pushing”, before changing his mind and claiming that his tyres were still performing well.

He nevertheless remained behind his team mate, but back at the front, Russell was experiencing his own tyre troubles. Driving nearly 10s ahead of Piastri at the halfway point, he brushed the wall at Turn 15 and asked Mercedes to keep an eye on the pressure, worrying that it “doesn’t feel quite right”.

Norris was the next to make an error as he locked up at high speed down the start/finish straight, taking to the run-off area and losing two places to Gasly and Antonelli. But he wasn’t the only one – Albon also suffered a lock-up and drove into the barrier at Turn 6, bringing his race to an early finish.

The Safety Car was deployed to recover his abandoned Williams, giving the leaders the chance to peel into the pits and take on fresh rubber that was intended to last them until the end of the Grand Prix.

After Red Bull executed an immaculate double stack to keep the order as it was, Hadjar said he was “going to need his help with Piastri” in reference to Verstappen, suggesting that the team were focused on achieving a minimum 2-3 finish with their drivers.

That goal was thrown into jeopardy when the Frenchman was warned about vibrations in the gearbox, but he quickly had to switch his attention to the restart. Russell just about held onto the lead as Verstappen finally succeeded in taking P2 away from Piastri, with chaos unfolding further behind.

Approaching the Turn 1 braking zone, Colapinto locked up and bumped into his Alpine team mate, who consequently couldn’t avoid hitting McLaren’s Norris. All three went off the track and ultimately retired from the race, resulting in another Safety Car period to clear the debris.

There was even more intra-team contact between the Racing Bulls pair as the 19-year-old tagged Lawson’s rear wheel – the New Zealander was understandably not best pleased and sarcastically commented: “I love getting taken out by my team mate. That’s pretty sick.”

When the action got underway once again, Russell had more control over the restart and kept the lead Red Bull behind, but disaster struck for Piastri whilst running in third place. Just as others had done earlier on, he locked up at the first turn and had to spin around to rejoin the circuit, which saw him plummet down the order to P15.

Amid the chaos, Antonelli had been bumped up to P6 and piled the pressure on Hamilton, with the Italian sailing past down the main straight with eight laps remaining. Verstappen was keen to make a similar pass on the lead Mercedes and consistently fought to stay close enough to force an error.

He and Russell were separated by just a few tenths and it increasingly looked like the battle for victory would go down to the wire, with both drivers pushing the limits around the circuit.

A yellow flag threatened to disrupt their exhilarating head-to-head when Cadillac’s Bottas found the wall, but they could continue to race as they began the 51st and final lap. Although Verstappen stuck as close by as possible and pulled alongside down the start/finish straight, he couldn’t quite get ahead of Russell and crossed the line 0.1s behind the Mercedes.

The thrilling conclusion saw Russell take his eighth career win while Red Bull ended up with a double podium finish, Hadjar securing P3 ahead of Leclerc, Antonelli – who successfully limited the damage of his Qualifying crash – and Hamilton.

Lindblad overtook Ocon over the line for P7 as both Haas drivers finished in the top 10 for the first time this season, with Bearman and Sainz the last of the points scorers. Hulkenberg and Lawson missed out in 11th and 12th place respectively, while Bortoleto, Piastri and Perez rounded out the finishers.

Bottas retired as a result of his late crash, as did Colapinto, Gasly, Norris and Albon. Aston Martin’s Alonso and Stroll also suffered DNFs due to issues with their cars that included a water pressure problem for the Canadian.

Key quote

"It’s amazing to be back on the top step of the podium," Russell said. "I just want to say a big thanks to my team, because they continued to believe in me through tough moments, helped me come through it. I’m really proud to have had this weekend. The first half of the race felt pretty plain sailing, getting the gap, the Safety Car restart… Especially when I saw Max behind, I thought, ‘It’s not going to be easy’. He drove incredibly at the end of the race. When the yellow flag came out, I lifted off the power, and when I went back, I had no turbo, so then I had no power. Max almost got me at the line, so that would have been a real shame. All in all, an incredible weekend."

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