George Russell ended a barren run without a Formula 1 victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix by just 0.196s over Max Verstappen, with championship leader Kimi Antonelli recovering from 16th to fifth, thanks in part to a pair of crash safety cars. first pit stops. His biggest initial cause for concern was “nipping” into the wall exiting Turn 15 on lap 25 of 51, but otherwise he ran smoothly until Alex Albon crashed at Turn 4 on lap 31 and erased his lead. The safety car benefited Russell’s teammate Kimi Antonelli the most. reach positions that pay points. While his progress was not as rapid as his comeback at Monza from 19th, it was risk-averse and more stable with the championship lead likely in mind. He caught and passed Franco Colapinto after erasing a gap of just under four seconds to take ninth and then took eighth place as Lando Norris’ disappointing run continued as the McLaren driver continued straight with a lock-up at Turn 1. At the time of the safety car, Antonelli was eighth and 35 seconds behind. Russell, but the safety car bunched up the field to give him a better chance of progressing and allowed him to switch to the favored soft tyre. He immediately regained a place on the restart when a massive fight broke out at Turn 1. A massive, almost comical block from Colapinto slammed him into his Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly, who had been seventh on the restart, and also took out Norris, while Liam Lawson was also spun in the concertina effect behind by Arvid. Lindblad. “I love it when my teammate takes me out,” said a sarcastic Lawson, as Alpine lost a double-score finish in the chaos, much to Gasly’s chagrin and Colapinto’s apologies. In the higher-pressure scenario of having Verstappen behind, Russell absolutely nailed the restart on lap 39, but Verstappen remained in overtaking mode until three laps later, and then Verstappen set the fastest lap of the race to close in. refusing to accept defeat. Until two laps to go, Verstappen stayed within range and put Russell under pressure, until Russell finally built a 1.4-second gap, but then Verstappen closed in on the finish line again on the final lap once both had cleared the scene of Valtteri Bottas’s crashed Cadillac. But Russell was able to hold on for his first victory since the Austrian GP at the end of June. “After the double yellow I had no momentum, I had no power,” Russell said after the race. Verstappen moved through the field from his eighth starting position in the early stages and, despite some disputes between him and his engineer over the means, and intense early pressure from Isack Hadjar, put in a good race to take second. He had already overtaken Oscar Piastri for second place after the first safety car restart. Hadjar achieved a surprising result to take third after three races injured, and was clearly faster in the early stages and played a great race with his teammate by offering to stay behind Verstappen. Fourth-placed Charles Leclerc was overtaken by the two Red Bulls and appeared to struggle to maintain the pace, making a podium on the day unlikely, and it could have been worse had Piastri not retired from the battle. with a lock in the first corner that sent him to the exit area, compounding McLaren’s disappointing day. Antonelli suffered floor damage after being hit by Ollie Bearman on the first safety car restart, and initially struggled to clear Lewis Hamilton, but eventually passed five laps after the second restart at Turn 1 and went no further, taking fifth place in another comeback. You struggle with race pace. Behind him, the Alpine-induced crash created chaos and brought into play a host of cars that were out of points contention. In the news, Esteban Ocon may be losing his Haas seat, but he jumped his teammate Bearman between the two safety cars, but was then overtaken on the final lap by just 0.030s, with Lindblad stealing the place on the line. He avoided a penalty for the Lawson incident and made some opportunistic overtakes to make the best of a difficult weekend with seventh place. Ocon finished eighth ahead of Bearman, while the improved Williams took a point through Carlos Sainz, who was only in 19th place after his early stop. Hulkenberg missed the point with 11th, ahead of Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto, Piastri and Sergio Pérez.
