By: The Azerbaijan GP was shaped more by incidents than genuine on-track battles. There were some duels, admittedly, but they lacked the intensity some had hoped for. Above all, it was not entirely meritocratic. Red Bull showed impressive pace, helped by the new engine fitted to Verstappen after the problems he suffered yesterday, and by Hadjar's fresh unit, which was fitted to Lawson in his absence at Monza.
Red Bull capitalises on fresh unit, Russell holds on. Ferrari the 'fourth force'
Verstappen, despite starting from P8, was able to make rapid progress. He passed McLaren and Ferrari before setting his sights on Russell. Before the Safety Car, Ferrari could be considered the fourth-quickest team, but a number of incidents played in its favour, allowing it to benefit from Norris's retirement and Piastri's mistake and continue to pick up some more points in the constructors' championship. During Ferrari's first stint on Softs, Leclerc and Hamilton probably suffered temperature issues with the C5 tyres. The tyres were switched off, according to Lewis himself. Around lap 10, the Ferrari pair were lapping around a second slower than Russell. The situation improved over the next four to five laps, the tyres came alive and the lap times then settled at the level of the frontrunners.
George claimed a hugely important victory. It all looked straightforward for him, but the Safety Car brought out by Albon threw everything into doubt. The fact Russell managed to beat Verstappen by just 196 thousandths says a great deal about how demanding the final 10 laps were for him.
Antonelli, meanwhile, produced a fine race. He probably could not have done any better. Unfortunately, unlike at Monza, the DRS trains significantly slowed his early recovery. Fifth place can be considered a success given that he started from P16. His result was heavily affected by the mistake he made yesterday. Piastri's error and the incident involving the Alpines and Norris helped him secure a few extra points.
Strategy recap
There was little to invent in strategic terms. The decision that dictated the entire race was the choice of compound at the start of the GP. Today, Pirelli deserves credit: yesterday it spoke highly of the Soft and saw it as the outright protagonist of today's race. It was not that we did not trust them, but, considering the risk of a Safety Car and the greater consistency of the Hard, we would have opted for the harder compound — wrongly, in this case.
The Soft, however, proved highly consistent and as quick as the Medium, if not even more competitive. The fact that the drivers who started on it covered more than half the GP says it all. It took the Safety Car to encourage drivers to pit; otherwise, who knows how many more laps they would have carried on for.
It must be said that, given the high likelihood of a Safety Car, nobody wanted to stop at that stage. They tried to stretch the tyres to the limit… In a sense, the SC was only a matter of time. Those who started on the Soft finished the race on the Medium and vice versa. Nothing could have been easier today. Retirements: Bottas, Colapinto, Gasly, Norris, Albon, Alonso and Stroll.
Pirelli's comments with Dario Marrafuschi
Pirelli's motorsport director commented on the tyre performance after the race: "The race broadly confirmed what we had predicted. The Soft and Medium compounds proved to be the most effective choices, to the extent that the grid was split almost equally between the two options at the start."
"As for tyre behaviour, the extremely limited degradation observed during the previous days was also confirmed during the Grand Prix. The C4 and C5 showed very low levels of wear, with no significant graining. This allowed drivers to maintain a high pace for much of the race. In these conditions, the Soft offered an advantage in terms of grip and driver confidence, particularly noticeable on a demanding circuit such as Baku, to the point that it proved to be the most competitive compound in the race. A clear demonstration was provided by the Red Bull pair, who, in identical cars but on reversed strategies, saw the driver on the red-walled tyre perform better than his team-mate", the Italian manager continued.
"Overall, the drivers were able to push throughout the race, needing only to pay attention to bringing the front axle back up to temperature after the restarts that followed the neutralisations. Finally, the Hard found no place in race strategies because the performance offered by the other two compounds never made it necessary to turn to a more conservative solution", said Dario Marrafuschi.
All the news, photos, weather, session times and times from the Azerbaijan GP 2026
