George Russell won the Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Saturday, 26 September, at the Baku City Circuit, holding off Max Verstappen by 0.196s after two late safety-car restarts turned a controlled lead into a last-lap fight (Formula1.com race result; Formula1.com race report). The race ran 51 laps and finished in 1:38:02.143 (FIA final classification). Lights-out was 15:00 local (13:00 CEST, 07:00 ET).
Russell started from pole after Friday’s 1:42.526, 0.837s clear of Charles Leclerc, and kept the lead at the start as Oscar Piastri passed Leclerc for second (Formula1.com). He stretched a comfortable gap while Verstappen climbed from eighth and Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, back after missing three races with a broken wrist, worked past Norris and Leclerc into the podium fight (Formula1.com; BBC Sport).
The race changed on Lap 30 when Williams’s Alex Albon crashed and brought out the safety car (BBC Sport; Formula1.com). On the restart Verstappen passed Piastri into Turn 1 for second, then the field was neutralised again almost immediately: Alpine’s Franco Colapinto locked up into Turn 1, hit teammate Pierre Gasly, and Gasly hit McLaren’s Lando Norris; all three retired (Formula1.com; BBC Sport). The Racing Bulls also made contact, with Arvid Lindblad tipping Liam Lawson into a spin (BBC Sport). Stewards later gave Colapinto a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision; because he did not finish, it was converted to a five-place grid drop at the next race (FIA stewards).
Russell handled the second restart cleanly and kept Verstappen roughly half a second behind through the closing laps (BBC Sport). On the final lap Valtteri Bottas crashed his Cadillac at Turn 15; after lifting for the yellow flags, Russell lost turbo boost and electrical deployment, and Verstappen closed to 0.196s at the line — the closest green-flag grand prix finish since the 2002 United States Grand Prix, per BBC Sport (Formula1.com; BBC Sport). “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,” Russell said (Formula1.com). “It’s amazing to be back on the top step of the podium. I do want to say a big thanks to my team because they’ve continued to believe in me through a tough moment” (BBC Sport).
Hadjar finished third, 10.704s back, for a Red Bull double podium on his return (Formula1.com). Leclerc was fourth in +14.136s, and championship leader Kimi Antonelli recovered from 16th on the grid — after his Q1 Turn 1 crash on Friday — to fifth in +14.512s, just 0.376s behind Leclerc (Formula1.com). Lewis Hamilton was sixth; Lindblad, Esteban Ocon, Oliver Bearman and Carlos Sainz completed the top 10 (Formula1.com). Piastri locked up after the second restart and finished 13th after a post-race penalty for Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto; Alonso and Lance Stroll retired with technical issues, Albon and Bottas with crashes, and Colapinto, Gasly and Norris with the Turn 1 collision (Formula1.com).
Antonelli now leads the drivers’ championship on 302 points to Russell’s 236, a gap of 66, down from 81 before the weekend (Formula1.com standings). The win is Russell’s third of 2026 and his first since Austria in June (Formula1.com; BBC Sport). Formula 1’s next round is at Sepang in Malaysia, 2–4 October (BBC Sport).
Floor: Russell wins Baku Sat 26 Sep from pole, 1:38:02.143, Verstappen +0.196, Hadjar +10.704; Antonelli 16th→5th; championship 302–236, gap 66 (was 81); Colapinto 10s collision penalty, converted to five-place grid drop; Albon/Bottas crash DNFs; Gasly/Norris/Colapinto collision DNFs; FIA final classification (FIA; Formula1.com; BBC Sport).