George Russell won the chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.
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| Photo: Peter Fox |
Baku was the first stop of the upcoming so-called "triple-header", as the Bahrain GP, which is held in Malaysia this time, is on the schedule this weekend, followed by Singapore next week. But compared to any other race weekend format, this year's Azerbaijan GP was held on Saturday because of Remembrance Day of Azerbaijan's offensive to Karabakh, which is celebrated on Sunday.
This meant that qualifying for the race was held on Friday, and Saturday's winner George Russell set a significant lap time, with an eight-tenths gap to second-placed Leclerc, which put him on pole position. His teammate Kimi Antonelli, who is leading the championship, made a major mistake in Q2 as he touched the wall at the first corner, damaging the front-right suspension of his car. He was therefore unable to continue in the final part of qualifying and was forced to start the race from P16.
Russell managed to stay in the race lead after the start and started to build a solid gap to the rest of the field. The first half of the race was very calm, and the real chaos started on lap 30. Lando Norris, who was in seventh position at the time, locked up his tyres and went off the track. Due to this, he lost two positions. Just a moment later, Alex Albon crashed into the wall, which caused a Safety Car, and drivers used the opportunity to make their pit stops.
The real chaos began when the Safety Car came in and the race was restarted. Franco Colapinto braked later than the others and tried to make an overtaking move into the first corner. However, he didn't manage to brake in time and crashed into his teammate Pierre Gasly, who immediately crashed into Lando Norris. All three drivers had to retire from the race.
"Just bit of disappointment, for myself, for the team. Just a big sorry to all of them, to the factory, to Pierre of course," said Colapinto when asked about the incident.
"I took him out, so really disappointed. We were both in a position to score points, was a big day for the team and I did a big mistake. Big sorry, it shouldn't happen.
"I was locking up and completely out of control. Not a lot I could do. We move onto the next one and try to score points."
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| Photo: Joe Portlock |
Verstappen was catching Russell for the race victory until the very last lap. At the finish line, he almost overtook Russell. However, the gap between him and Russell was the smallest one in over two decades, it was only 0.196s. Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas didn't see the chequered flag, as he crashed into the barrier on the last lap.
Russell and Verstappen were joined on the podium by Isack Hadjar, who came back after his injury and immediately scored a podium finish.
“The first half of the race felt pretty plain sailing, getting the gap, the Safety Car restart… When I saw Max behind, I thought, ‘It’s not going to be easy’. He drove incredibly at the end of the race.
“When the yellow flag came out [for Valtteri Bottas’ crash], 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. All in all, an incredible weekend,” said Russell after the race.
Despite Russell's victory in Baku, he still trails championship leader Antonelli by 66 points. However, there are still plenty of races until the end of the season, and as we saw last year, everything is possible. Whether Russell has found a second breath will become clear this weekend in Sepang, where the Bahrain Grand Prix will be held.