AZERBAIJAN LOWDOWN: All the key moments as Russell takes victory and Baku puts on another show

Azerbaijan marked 10 years on the F1 calendar with another action-packed weekend of competition – one that saw George Russell emerge victorious and cut team mate Kimi Antonelli’s advantage at the top of the championship.

Elsewhere, Isack Hadjar marked his return from injury with a fine podium finish, several drivers got caught up in Safety Car restart drama, and the race for the F2 title stepped up a gear.

Read on for a recap of all the key moments from the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix…

Russell claims victory despite Verstappen’s late challenge

For a large portion of Saturday’s race on the streets of Baku, Russell dominated proceedings as he had done a day earlier in Qualifying, where he grabbed pole position by a whopping eight tenths.

Having held the lead at the start, the Briton gradually increased his lead over the chasing pack, initially led by Oscar Piastri, and his margin stood at more than 10 seconds when the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 31 after Alex Albon found the barrier.

Russell then nailed a tricky restart, with the long main straight and late start/finish line offering those behind the chance to use the slipstream for an overtake, which Max Verstappen did successfully on Piastri.

It set up a titanic final leg as the pair circulated together and never drifted more than one second apart, their pace and brushes with the walls meaning they left the rest of the field behind.

Russell managed the gap enough to prevent Verstappen from having a run down the main straight, but a yellow flag on the final lap for Valtteri Bottas’s stricken car at Turn 15 meant he backed off and lost crucial power from his turbo.

It almost opened the door for Verstappen, who fell short of victory by just one tenth as Russell took his first F1 grand slam and just his third win of the season.

It couldn’t have come at a better time, with Russell cutting the gap to team mate Antonelli in the drivers’ standings to 66 points and, perhaps more importantly, having found race-winning performance from his car for the first time since June.

Double Red Bull podium after a stellar Hadjar comeback

Verstappen was left frustrated after Qualifying in Baku, as the Red Bull driver went from looking like a pole position threat to being left P8 on the grid after several issues.

The Dutchman certainly wasn’t lacking pace in the race though, making short work of those ahead until he got stuck behind Piastri in the early stages, only overtaking the McLaren man after a Safety Car restart.

Verstappen then pushed Russell hard for victory, which included glancing the wall on the entry to Turn 16 several times before ultimately falling short of his first win in 2026.

Despite failing to reach the top step, Red Bull enjoyed their best weekend of the season so far as Hadjar completed the rostrum in third to cap off a remarkable return to F1.

The Frenchman had missed the last three race weekends with a wrist injury sustained during the summer break, but immediately hit his stride as he qualified fourth.

After allowing Verstappen through in the early laps, Hadjar shadowed his team mate and eventually overtook Piastri – as the Australian made a mistake at Turn 1 – for just his second podium of the season.

Safety Car chaos shakes up the race

Just as it looked like Russell would go entirely unchallenged on his way to victory, Albon locked up and drove straight into the barrier at Turn 6, starting a chain of events that would throw the race into chaos.

With the Safety Car deployed and the field neutralised, the majority dived into the pits and returned to the track as they were – it wasn’t until the restart that things fell apart for Alpine, McLaren and Racing Bulls.

Russell shakily led from a charging Verstappen whilst further back, Franco Colapinto became one of the many drivers to fall victim to a lock-up as he failed to make Turn 1, colliding with his team mate Pierre Gasly.

The Frenchman was squeezed into Lando Norris as a result, sending the trio onto the run-off area with damage that saw them all retire from the race. Almost simultaneously, Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad tagged the rear of Liam Lawson’s car, prompting the latter’s sarcastic comment: “I love getting taken out by my team mate. That’s pretty sick.”

Once the action resumed for a second time, the second McLaren of Piastri watched a potential podium slip out of his hands as he was also caught out at the first corner, locking up and going wide before he rejoined the track in P15.

The disorder was detrimental for some, but it played perfectly into Antonelli’s hands as he improved to P5, with Haas and Williams also making the most of it to score some rare points.

A point-less weekend for McLaren

The Norris of two weeks ago was devastated to miss out on the win in Madrid, but even he couldn’t have predicted how much worse McLaren’s weekend in Azerbaijan would be as they left the round with zero points.

It was pretty clear that the low-speed corners of Baku wouldn’t play to the team’s strengths, so Piastri taking P3 in Qualifying was a pleasant surprise – and with Norris lining up P5, a decent points haul was on the table.

However, while the Aussie spent most of the race fiercely defending his place in the top three, his team mate could find no solution to his lack of pace, especially down the long straights. He temporarily got ahead of Red Bull’s Hadjar at the start before the Frenchman fought back, with Verstappen similarly overtaking him shortly afterwards.

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton was the next to get past after Norris made one of a handful of errors, his most consequential being a lock-up that allowed Gasly and Antonelli to demote him further down the running order.

But it was a mistake from Colapinto, rather than Norris, that brought his day to an early end as he was taken out by the clash between the Alpine drivers, causing his later statement that there are “some drivers that shouldn’t be in F1”.

As mentioned above, Piastri didn’t have a good time of it either as he similarly lost control at Turn 1, leaving him unable to do anything as his competitors powered past. He gained a position from Bottas’ late crash, but finishing P14 instead of P15 didn’t really soften the blow.

Baku’s 10th anniversary is one to remember

This year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix marked 10 years since Baku arrived on the calendar back in 2016. It has proven a popular addition with fans and drivers alike, delivering plenty of memorable moments across the years.

One thing Baku often throws up is intra-team clashes, with Daniel Ricciardo and Verstappen’s crash in 2018 living long in the memory, while Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez collided back in 2017 when both at Force India.

As such, it was fitting that the 2026 edition saw not one but two intra-team moments, the biggest of which involved Colapinto and Gasly’s Alpines, which led to both retiring from the race. Racing Bulls pair Lawson and Lindblad also made contact, but both were able to continue.

Baku was also the venue where Piastri’s championship hopes began to unravel last season, making it somewhat fitting that the current leader in the standings almost suffered a similar fate this year – Antonelli crashing in Qualifying, but unlike the Australian, able to recover to fifth and salvage some points.

Those are not the only things 2026 will be remembered for, with Russell’s emphatic pole position, his narrow margin of victory over a resurgent Verstappen, McLaren’s disastrous lock-ups and a drag race over the line for seventh place also worth noting.

All in all, the 2026 edition delivered on drama and wheel-to-wheel action, and has even sparked life back into the championship battle at Mercedes.

F2 championship hots up

Going into Baku, Nikola Tsolov had a seven-point lead over Rafael Camara in the F2 standings, but that all changed following not one, but two Feature Races in the City of Winds.

Tsolov did not finish the first Feature Race after being involved in a multi-car incident, which was won by Alexander Dunne from pole. Martinius Stenshorne took second to give Rodin Motorsport a 1-2, with Dino Beganovic third for DAMS Lucas Oil.

With Camara finishing fourth, Tsolov’s lead in the standings was gone, and he finished behind his rival in the second Feature Race too, with Camara taking a seven-point lead overall following his victory.

Camara was fortunate to get the win, having finished second on the road – but Dunne was penalised for crossing the white line on pit entry, which dropped him from first to third.

Dunne is only 18 points behind in the championship now, so he cannot be discounted in terms of the title, with racing set to resume in Qatar later this season.