Azerbaijan Grand Prix: The streets of Baku were alive as George Russell led from start to finish.
The race in Baku proved that anything can happen and for many drivers over the weekend there were mixed emotions and even controversial takes too.
George Russell had a brilliant result, leading the Grand Prix from start to finish, with some threat to the lead. He managed to keep it cool, calm and collected to ensure he finished on top. Kimi Antonelli had a difficult weekend. An incident in practice regarding the engine ended his session early, before he hit the wall in qualifying and was forced to watch from the sidelines. Having started P16, he eventually managed to jump into the top 10, ultimately finishing P5.
The RedBull Racing duo managed to secure a P2 and P3 result. Max Verstappen started P8 and would finish P2 after a great run behind Oscar Piastri, before threatening Russell for the lead, being only 1 tenth away from getting the win on the final lap. Isack Hadjar returned to the F1 grid after his wrist injury and secured himself the P3 result, which was a tremendous result despite having missed the past few race weekends.
Charles Leclerc had a difficult start, starting P2 he dropped out for there early, down to P4 and despite his best efforts he was forced to settle for P4. A difficult day even after discussing whether he had ADUO 1 or ADUO 2 for his engine, confirming he had the better one compared to his teammate. Lewis Hamilton ended up P6, having also started there too. Hamilton struggled with maintaining speed and gaining on the straights even with the overtake mode.
Arvid Lindblad managed to finish P7, despite having a moment with his teammate where he accidentally ran into Liam Lawson. Both drivers managed to finish the race, however due to the incident Liam Lawson did drop down and only manage to finish P12.
Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman managed to secure a double points finish for Haas with Ocon finishing P8 and Bearman finishing P9. This could give a boost to Ocon who appears to be a free agent and looking for a spot to go to for the 2027 season.
Carlos Sainz was the sole remaining Williams and managed to finish P10. Williams brought themselves a major upgrade to Baku and in a way, it did pay off. For Alex Albon though it was an early finish to his race after he locked up and ran into the barrier.
Nico Hulkenberg was so close to securing points, finishing just behind Sainz. Hulkenberg was forced to settle for P11, with his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto only managing to finish P15 and quite far behind the pack.
Oscar Piastri had a difficult day in Baku. Having got a good start and managing to get ahead of Leclerc, later in the race he locked up heading into turn one and unfortunately dropped all the way down the field. He was able to make a couple overtakes but with very little laps remaining it wasn’t going to do much. Piastri was only able to finish P13. His teammate Lando Norris was an unfortunate car that was taken out by Alpines Franco Colapinto after locking up. Norris was seen post-race visibly frustrated, even saying “just some drivers that shouldn’t be in Formula One, to be honest”.
The Cadillac pairing had a mixed bag result again. Sergio Perez showed some promise in qualifying, but despite all that, he finished P14. His teammate Valtteri Bottas, however crashed on the final lap.
The Alpine duo were both a DNF due to that safety car restart incident where Franco Colapinto tried to complete an overtake, but locked up, running straight into his teammate Pierre Gasly.
The Aston Martin duo was the other team to have a double DNF. Their continued disappointing results for the pair come after more issues regarding water pump problems for Stroll and suspected engine problem for Alonso.
We go again for another race weekend. This time we return to an iconic track for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. We head back to the circuit in Sepang for the first time since 2017.
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