By: The race in Baku was nothing short of fiery, but George Russell emerged victorious: here is what happened.
The start
When the lights went out, Russell retained the lead while Leclerc suffered wheelspin and was passed by Piastri, who moved up to second. Norris climbed to fourth, with Verstappen sixth. Antonelli was 17th. Looking at tyre choices, the Mercedes pair were both on mediums, while Ferrari opted for softs; Red Bull split strategies, with Hadjar on softs and Verstappen on mediums.
Red Bull stars – Russell builds a gap, but Albon spoils the party
The opening laps were flat-out for Verstappen and Hadjar, who sliced through their rivals with remarkable ease: by lap eight, they were already third and fourth respectively, not far behind Piastri, who was already trying to defend. Charles Leclerc did not have the pace, already almost three seconds behind the group ahead. Meanwhile, further back, Antonelli had climbed to 14th, while Stroll retired with issues on his AMR26. The positions remained unchanged for several laps, until Hamilton passed Norris on lap 17 to move into sixth. Verstappen, meanwhile, was unable to get past Piastri, who was driving very well in this opening phase of the race.
Meanwhile, George Russell opened up a gap of as much as 10 seconds over the driver of car number 81, consistently setting fast laps. His pace was clearly superior to the competition, but on lap 30 of 51 it was interrupted by Alex Albon's crash: after locking up, he hit the barriers at Turn 6. The driver was unharmed, but the Safety Car was required to remove the car. All the drivers therefore made their pit stops, with the positions unchanged.
A double restart
Verstappen managed to pass Piastri to move into second, but slightly further back a multi-car incident was triggered by Colapinto's Alpine. Gasly and Norris were out, while Antonelli escaped by millimetres. The second Safety Car was deployed. At the second restart, Russell retained the lead with Verstappen in pursuit. Behind them, Piastri defended from Hadjar, but on the following lap, at Turn 1, the Australian ran wide and dramatically dropped to 15th: in just a few laps, it had become pitch black for McLaren. Hadjar therefore moved up to third.
With fewer than 10 laps remaining, Antonelli passed Hamilton to take fifth, while Verstappen remained within a second of Russell. A yellow flag caused by Bottas, who hit the wall just before the long straight leading to the finish, set up a sprint to the line between Verstappen and Russell, but the number 63 brought home victory in a race in which he was clearly the best driver on track. A double podium for Red Bull, with Hadjar returning to brilliant form after his injury. Leclerc was fourth, successfully defending against Antonelli's attacks. Lindblad, Bearman, Ocon and Sainz also performed well, all finishing in the top 10. Below is the full classification.
Cover photo by Peter Kiss / WHYOUT images
All the news, photos, weather, session times and times from the Azerbaijan GP 2026
