George Russell held off a late charge from Max Verstappen to win a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, securing his third victory of the 2026 Formula 1 season by just 0.196 seconds.
The Mercedes driver converted pole position into victory on a dramatic Saturday afternoon, surviving two safety car periods and intense pressure from Verstappen in the closing stages.
Russell had dominated qualifying on Friday, producing a lap 0.837 seconds faster than Charles Leclerc to claim his fifth pole of the season. The result was even more significant given Mercedes team-mate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli’s Q1 crash, which left the Italian starting from 16th.
The unusual Saturday race schedule was already a talking point before the weekend began, with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix moved forward by a day as part of a change to the traditional Baku timetable.
But once the lights went out, Russell immediately established control.
The Briton made a clean getaway and began building a gap at the front, while Oscar Piastri initially held second ahead of Isack Hadjar and Lando Norris. Verstappen, starting eighth after a difficult qualifying session, quickly began making progress through the field.
Russell’s advantage eventually stretched beyond 10 seconds, but the race changed dramatically on Lap 31 when Alex Albon locked up and hit the barriers. The resulting safety car brought the field back together and gave Verstappen an opportunity to attack.
At the restart, Verstappen immediately made his move. The Red Bull driver overtook Piastri and began closing in on Russell, setting up a battle for victory that would last until the chequered flag.
The second safety car period created even more drama.
Franco Colapinto locked up at Turn 1 and collided with his Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly, with Lando Norris also caught up in the incident. All three were forced to retire. At almost the same time, the Racing Bulls drivers were involved in their own intra-team collision, with Arvid Lindblad tagging Liam Lawson.
The chaos also ended Oscar Piastri’s hopes of a podium.
The McLaren driver had spent much of the race defending his position in the leading group, but a lock-up at Turn 1 sent him wide and dropped him down the order. He eventually finished 14th, leaving McLaren with no points from a weekend that had initially promised much more.
At the front, however, Russell remained composed.
Verstappen spent the final laps within a second of the Mercedes, repeatedly looking for an opportunity down Baku’s famously long main straight. The Dutchman even made contact with the wall at Turn 16 as he pushed for his first victory of the season.
Then, on the final lap, a yellow flag caused by Valtteri Bottas’ stranded car meant Russell had to back off, briefly opening the door for Verstappen.
It was not enough.
Russell crossed the line just 0.196 seconds ahead of Verstappen to claim Mercedes’ latest victory, while Isack Hadjar completed the podium in third on his return from injury. Charles Leclerc finished fourth, while Antonelli produced an impressive recovery from 16th to take fifth. Lewis Hamilton followed in sixth.
The 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix race results
For Hadjar, the podium was particularly significant. The Red Bull driver had missed the previous three race weekends with a wrist injury, but returned to the grid with fourth place in qualifying before securing his second podium of the season.
For Antonelli, meanwhile, fifth place limited the damage from a weekend that appeared to be heading towards disaster after his qualifying crash.
Most importantly for Russell, the victory closes the gap to his Mercedes team-mate in the drivers’ championship. Antonelli’s advantage over Russell has now been reduced to 66 points with the 2026 season entering its final stages.
Baku once again delivered the unpredictable Formula 1 spectacle the street circuit has become famous for. Six drivers failed to finish, two safety cars reshaped the race and the victory was decided by less than two tenths of a second.
And after a season in which Russell had been searching for another win since Austria, the Mercedes driver finally found it under the lights on the streets of Baku, with Verstappen charging all the way to the line behind him.
