George Russell claimed his third victory of 2026 by leading every lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver led home the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, who rose through the field with strong pace early on.Russell led the majority of the race until it was interrupted by a Safety Car period triggered by Alexander Albon. The Williams driver crashed out at turn five.
Almost the entire field took the opportunity to pit, after which Russell led from Piastri, Verstappen and Hadjar. Verstappen pounced on Piastri for second place at the restart, than carnage broke out behind them.
Franco Colapinto dived down the inside of turn one from a long way back and clattered into his team mate Pierre Gasly. The pair also skittled Lando Norris, who had dropped down the order earlier on by running wide at the same corner.
Remarkably, this wasn’t the only collision by a pair of team mates at the restart. Arvid Lindblad slithered wide into the sister car of Liam Lawson, tipping him into a spin, though the unimpressed Lawson was able to continue. “Man I love getting taken out by my team mate,” he remarked sarcastically. “That’s pretty sick.”
The second restart was clean and Russell led away with Verstappen close behind. Hadjar began applying pressure to Piastri and did not have to wait long for the McLaren driver to slip up. Piastri ran deep at turn one, just as Norris had earlier, and tumbled out of the points places.
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Verstappen spent the final laps chasing Russell but dropped out of Overtake Mode range when the final lap began. However he closed suddenly after the pair passed the crashed Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas at turn 15. Russell reached the line less than two tenths of a second before Verstappen, while Isack Hadjar completed Red Bull’s first double podium finish for over two years.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli made slow progress initially from 16th place on the grid, losing a place on the first lap. However the Safety Car brought him within range of the front-runners, aided by the disaster for the Alpine drivers. He picked off Lewis Hamilton for fifth place on lap 43 but ran out of time to catch Charles Leclerc.
Lindblad made amends for colliding with his team mate by passing both Haas drivers in the final laps. He took Esteban Ocon as they sprinted for the line, crossing it just three hundredths of a second before his rival.
Oliver Bearman took ninth while Carlos Sainz Jnr picked up a single point in the upgraded Williams.