F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2026 recap: Russell beats Verstappen by the skin of his teeth
Mercedes’ George Russell converted his pole position to a win on the streets of Baku to win the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. His victory wasn’t an easy one, though, as he only just about managed to keep Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at bay, eventually winning by only one-tenth of a second.
Red Bull walked away from Baku with a double podium, showing incredible pace as Isack Hadjar finished P3 on his return from injury.
Russell and Verstappen’s 0.1-second difference was the closest finish to a race since the 2002 race in Indianapolis. While Russell picked up his third win of the season, his teammate, Kimi Antonelli, put in a stellar recovery drive after a horror qualifying saw him start P16, finishing P5.
McLaren, meanwhile, had a weekend to forget: Lando Norris crashed out, while Oscar Piastri’s late error saw him finish out of the points.
George Russell held on to pole, seeing off Charles Leclerc, with Oscar Piastri moving to P2 right at the start, going around Leclerc into Turn 1. Behind them, Lando Norris picked up a place, going past Isack Hadjar to move to P4. But a couple of laps later both Red Bull drivers were making moves: Hadjar and Max Verstappen got past Norris and Lewis Hamilton to go fourth and fifth, respectively, on Lap 3 and were storming through the field, with Hadjar all over the back of Leclerc.
On Lap 4, Hadjar breezed past Leclerc heading into Turn 2 to move into third place. A lap later, Verstappen eased past Leclerc on the main straight to move up to fourth place, with the Red Bull duo continuing to impress early on.
By Lap 6, as Russell led from Piastri, with the Red Bull pair right behind him, Kimi Antonelli, who had a shocking qualifying and started P16, was up to P14, having dropped a place on the opening lap itself. Verstappen moved into third place on Lap 7, getting past Hadjar with relative ease as the team instructed the duo to not fight between themselves.
As the race completed its 10th lap, Russell had a lead of almost five seconds at the front, with Piastri keeping Verstappen just out of the DRS range. Hadjar, meanwhile, hung on right behind his teammate, with Leclerc a further three seconds behind.
In a couple of laps’ time, Antonelli was up to P11, just outside the points, while Hamilton was making up ground on Norris for P6. At the top, Russell continued to extend his lead and was over seven seconds clear of Piastri.
On Lap 16, an error from Norris saw Hamilton come close. The veteran Brit got Norris for sixth position, while Antonelli moved into the points, going past Ollie Bearman.
There was little to no action on track for a while, before on Lap 30 Norris locked up trying to go into Turn 1, which saw him fall down to P9 from P6 as Antonelli also made up a place on him.
The first incident of the race saw Alex Albon smash into the wall at Turn 5, bringing out the Yellow Flag and then the Safety Car. As the Safety Car came out, the drivers came in for their pit stops, including race leader George Russell along with the rest of the top eight.
After five laps under the Safety Car, racing resumed on Lap 35, and while Russell and the top half were clean, the two Alpine cars came together and crashed at Turn 1. Lando Norris was also caught in the incident, which saw the Safety Car come out instantly again. The A526s got back on track and limped back to the pits, but Norris’ race came to an end.
The second Safety Car ended on Lap 38, with Russell trying to catch the rest off-guard, but Verstappen and Piastri managed to stay in touch with him. Russell managed to keep Verstappen and Piastri behind him, though, with Hadjar, Leclerc, and Hamilton rounding out the top six, while Antonelli moved up to P7 amid all the chaos.
On Lap 40, Piastri locked up at Turn 1 trying to get past Verstappen and went straight on, which saw him drop straight down to P15 and Hadjar move into the podium places. The last couple of laps saw a two-way battle at the top, with Verstappen pressing Russell, before on Lap 46 he brushed the wall going into Turn 1 and gave Russell some breathing space. Verstappen didn’t let that affect him, though, and was back on the pace and under a second behind Russell, who himself had a moment of oversteer on Lap 50 at Turn 1 itself, which allowed the Dutchman to get close to him.
Russell just about hung on for the last two laps. Verstappen came agonisingly close and pushed him right till the end, but Russell won by 0.1s in the end. Hadjar also finished on the podium, delivering Red Bull a 1-2, while Leclerc and Antonelli finished in the top five. Hamilton, Arvid Lindblad, Esteban Ocon, Bearman, and Carlos Sainz rounded out the points places in that order, as Piastri’s lock-up saw him finish a lowly 14th, which meant McLaren walked away with zero points from Baku.
The first race of the triple-header has come to an end. Racing continues as the grid moves to Malaysia for the Bahrain Grand Prix next weekend.
