George Russell won the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the Baku City Circuit on Saturday, holding off Max Verstappen to take his third victory of the season. The win keeps Russell in the hunt for the drivers’ championship against his own Mercedes teammate, Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Behind them, a restart crash collected Lando Norris’ McLaren and left Franco Colapinto with a penalty that follows him into the next race.
How the race was won
Russell started from pole position after the fastest qualifying lap, 1:42.526, and led the 51-lap race to the finish in 1:38:02.143. Verstappen, who started eighth, finished 0.196 seconds behind. “It’s amazing to be back on the top step of the podium,” Russell said afterward. He also described a tense finish: “When the yellow flag came out, I lifted off the power, and when I went back, I had no turbo, so then I had no power. Max almost got me at the line, so that would have been a real shame.”
Isack Hadjar brought the second Red Bull home third, 10.704 seconds back, ahead of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, Antonelli’s Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, and Arvid Lindblad, Esteban Ocon, Oliver Bearman and Carlos Sainz to round out the top 10. The race had two Safety Car periods, and Verstappen set the fastest lap.
The restart crash and the penalty
The crash came on the restart after the first Safety Car, when Franco Colapinto locked up under braking and hit his own Alpine teammate, Pierre Gasly. That collision also collected Norris’ McLaren, and all three cars were retired on the spot. Alpine had been on course for a double-points finish before the crash, with Gasly running seventh and Colapinto tenth.
Colapinto did not dispute what happened, apologizing to his team and to Gasly. “I was locking up and completely out of control,” he said afterward. Gasly said: “We’ll manage it together as a team.”
According to RaceFans’ report on the stewards’ decision, officials said Colapinto braked too late and overshot the corner, striking Gasly, who then hit Norris; the stewards found Colapinto “wholly or predominantly to blame” and handed him a 10-second time penalty. Because he had already retired from the race, that penalty converts into a five-place grid drop for the next round — starting five places further back than he qualifies — a consequence Colapinto will carry into his next start rather than serve on Saturday.
Alexander Albon, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll also retired earlier in the race. RaceFans reported that Valtteri Bottas crashed on the last lap; he was still classified 16th, having completed 49 of the 51 laps.
The championship after Baku
Antonelli still leads the drivers’ standings on 302 points with eight wins this season. Russell sits second on 236 points with three wins of his own — a 66-point gap between the two Mercedes drivers. Hamilton is third on 199, Norris fourth on 186, Leclerc fifth on 179, and Verstappen sixth on 163. In the constructors’ standings, Mercedes leads on 538 points, well clear of Ferrari’s 378, McLaren’s 306 and Red Bull’s 263.
The gap between Antonelli and Russell is large but not decisive. Eight rounds remain after Baku on the current calendar, and a driver who won all eight remaining races and the one remaining sprint would collect 208 points, more than three times the current gap.
What’s next
The series moves on to its next round on Oct. 4, with Colapinto’s five-place grid penalty attached to his entry there. One sprint race remains on the calendar, in Singapore from Oct. 9-11. Further out, the schedule itself is unsettled: ESPN reports that the season’s final two rounds are in doubt because of the U.S.-Iran conflict, with a decision on whether they go ahead expected by mid-October.