George Russell won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on Saturday after holding off Max Verstappen in a finish settled by about a tenth of a second. It was the third win of the season for the Mercedes driver, in a 51-lap race twice interrupted by the safety car and marked by six retirements.
Isack Hadjar completed the podium in third, giving Red Bull two cars in the top three. Charles Leclerc came fourth, Kimi Antonelli fifth and Lewis Hamilton sixth.
From pole to victory, with McLaren out of the picture
Russell started from pole, taken with a lap of 1:42.526, 0.837s clear of Leclerc. "It's been a while, so it definitely feels good. It's probably the biggest margin of my whole career," he said after qualifying, according to Formula 1.
The race turned at halfway. Oscar Piastri kept both Red Bulls behind him for much of the afternoon but ended up 14th and out of the points. The first safety car followed Alex Albon's crash; the second came when Franco Colapinto locked up and took Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris out in one move.
Besides Albon, Colapinto, Gasly and Norris, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll also retired.
Antonelli went the other way. He hit the wall at Turn 1 in Q1, with suspension damage that ended his qualifying, started 16th and finished fifth. Brazil's Gabriel Bortoleto, driving for Audi, came home 13th.
Antonelli stays in front
The win brings Russell closer to his team-mate but does not change who leads the championship. Antonelli is still first with 302 points against Russell's 236 — a gap of 66. Hamilton is third on 199, followed by Norris (186), Leclerc (179), Verstappen (163), Piastri (120) and Hadjar (86).
Among the constructors, Mercedes have 538 points and are 160 clear of Ferrari, on 378. McLaren have 306 and Red Bull 249.
The weekend was particularly bad for McLaren: with Norris retiring and Piastri 14th, the team left Baku without a single point while both Mercedes scored — which goes some way to explaining the gap the German team has opened up.
With information from Formula 1, The Race and Yahoo Sports.
