Azerbaijan Grand Prix Results: Russell's First Grand Slam in Baku
Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing Formula 1 Race Recap - what actually happened on race day, in plain English, with every number checked.
The Short Version
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix results are in, and George Russell got every single thing he could out of a weekend. He took pole, led all 51 laps, set the fastest lap of the race, and won. That combination has a name in Formula 1: a grand slam, and it is the first of Russell's career. The catch is that he won it by 0.196 seconds after two safety cars wiped out a lead he had spent half a race building, with Max Verstappen filling his mirrors on the run to the flag.
How the Azerbaijan Grand Prix Results Came Together
Russell put the Mercedes on pole by more than eight tenths, which around a street circuit is an enormous margin. He then did the boring, ruthless version of a Baku win: clean getaway, no wall contact, no lock-ups, and a lead that grew past ten seconds while everyone behind him traded places.
Then Baku did what Baku does. Alex Albon locked a brake and put his Williams into the barrier at Turn 6, and the safety car erased the gap. Russell restarted well. Verstappen did better, using the slipstream down the long run to the line to clear Oscar Piastri and move into second. From there it was a two-car race with a rapidly shrinking cushion.
The last lap is where it nearly came apart. Valtteri Bottas parked his stricken Cadillac near Turn 15, the yellow flags came out, and Russell had to lift. Verstappen arrived at the line 0.196 seconds behind. Russell still had the fastest lap in his pocket, a 1:44.916 set on lap 49.
GEORGE RUSSELL WINS THE AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX!! 🏁🏆🎉#F1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/SkqkvROIfR
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 26, 2026
It is Russell's eighth career win and his third of 2026, after Australia and Austria. He called it "probably one of the strongest of my career so far," and the timing sheet backs him up.
The Two Safety Cars That Nearly Flipped It
The first one was Albon. The second one was worse. At the restart, Franco Colapinto missed his braking point into Turn 1, hit his own Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly, and collected Lando Norris in the process. Three cars out at one corner, and a second safety car to bunch the field up all over again.
Add the Aston Martins, both of which were gone early, and six drivers did not make the finish: Albon, Colapinto, Gasly, Norris, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Bottas limped far enough to be classified 16th. Fifteen cars were still running on the lead lap at the flag, which for this circuit counts as a quiet day.
Red Bull's Best Day of the Year, and Hadjar's Comeback
Verstappen started eighth after an engine change and finished second, two tenths short of a win he has not had all season. Fifteen races into 2026 he is still winless, but he now has seven podiums, and this was the closest he has come.
Behind him, Isack Hadjar finished third in his first race back after missing three rounds through injury. That is his second podium of 2026, after Monaco, and the third of his career. It also gave Red Bull its first double podium of the season, with both cars on the box for the first time in 2026.
"You can't really ask for a better comeback than that," Hadjar said. Red Bull left the cars in track order rather than swapping them, and nobody on the pit wall seemed to regret it.
George Russell holds off Max Verstappen to WIN by 0.1 seconds! pic.twitter.com/3htLjbOjPF
— Motorsport (@Motorsport) September 26, 2026
McLaren Scored Nothing
This was the bad one for McLaren. Norris qualified fifth and was taken out of the race through no fault of his own. Piastri qualified third, ran second for a long stretch, then locked up at Turn 1 late and dropped all the way to 13th. Two cars, zero points, on a weekend when both rivals ahead of them scored heavily.
Norris stays fourth in the standings on 186 points, but he did not add to them, and the drivers ahead of him did.
The stewards put the crash on Colapinto and handed him a five-place grid penalty for the next race. Colapinto took the blame himself, saying he was "locking up and completely out of control" and offering "a big sorry to all of them." Norris was not in a forgiving mood. "I think the FIA should be stricter and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff," he said. "It's careless from people. It costs a lot of money, all my parts are in the bin now." He went further and said that if you cause a crash at a restart like that one, you should get at least a one-race ban. Gasly, taken out by his own teammate, kept it short and said the team would manage it together.
Antonelli Limited the Damage
Kimi Antonelli crashed in Q1 and started 16th. He finished fifth. No heroics, no risks, just a steady climb through a race that kept handing places to anyone still on track.
"Today was about damage limitation," he said. "I took no unnecessary risks at all and focused on maximising the points." It cost him, but not much: his championship lead went from 81 points to 66, and the man who took those points off him is his own teammate.
Where the Championship Stands
Antonelli still leads on 302 points to Russell's 236, with Lewis Hamilton third on 199. Mercedes has 538 constructors' points to Ferrari's 378, which is the kind of gap that stops being a fight and starts being a formality.
Eight races remain. Next up is the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia at Sepang on October 4. You can keep an eye on the rest of the calendar on our Formula 1 schedule page, and if Baku is on your bucket list, our Baku City Circuit fan guide covers the bag policy and what you can actually carry in.
The Bottom Line
Russell drove the perfect race and still had to survive the last two corners to keep it. That is Baku, and that is why it keeps producing finishes like this one. For the record, our pick for this race was Russell, and for once the street circuit cooperated.
Riding with the grand slam guy? Start with the Mercedes AMG Petronas George Russell 1:2 scale helmet. For the Red Bull double-podium crowd, there is the Max Verstappen RB16B 1:18 model car and the Red Bull Racing special edition Spielberg tee. McLaren fans, it was a rough one, so the McLaren Racing New Era Shadow beanie is there for the long winter, and the Formula 1 Tech limited edition hat works no matter who you cheer for. New F1 recaps land after every Grand Prix.
