Russell wins in Baku as Hadjar returns to the podium
George Russell took his third victory of the season and Isack Hadjar finished third on his comeback from a wrist injury at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on 26 September 2026. Russell led from lights to flag while Max Verstappen claimed second, finishing less than two tenths of a second behind.
Russell dominated the weekend in Azerbaijan, setting the pace across practice, qualifying and the race. Verstappen mounted a strong late challenge but could not overhaul Russell on the run to the line. Hadjar returned after missing the three previous races with a wrist injury and converted his pace into a podium finish.
Russell was fastest on Thursday and produced a qualifying lap that gave him pole by more than eight tenths of a second. He controlled the Grand Prix thereafter and withstood a late onslaught from Verstappen, securing the win. The performance across the weekend left little obvious fault to find in his execution.
Verstappen encountered power and energy deployment issues that left him down the order in qualifying, placing him eighth, but he recovered through the field on Saturday. He passed Oscar Piastri to move into second and closed to within less than two-tenths of Russell by the finish. His progression through traffic and pressure on Russell were decisive elements of his race.
Hadjar’s return was notable: he out-qualified Verstappen with fourth on the grid, demonstrated strong opening pace in the race and finished on the podium. The report notes he also "played the team game when Verstappen came through." The podium marked a successful comeback after three races on the sidelines.
Kimi Antonelli endured a mixed weekend after a qualifying incident left him starting 16th, but he recovered to finish fifth. The report describes crashing out in Q1 as a costly mistake and says he picked up floor damage during his recovery through the field. His recovery limited the immediate damage from a poor qualifying session.
Other individual performances included a driver who started second on the grid — aided by a tow — but whose team "simply didn't have the race pace to stay with Russell and the Red Bulls," leaving fourth as about the maximum available. One competitor recovered from a practice crash and a 15th-place start to take seventh by the smallest of margins from Esteban Ocon. A different driver climbed from as low as 19th to take the final point after receiving a five-place penalty for failing to slow sufficiently for yellow flags.
Russell’s victory had a direct effect on the championship standings: it cut the gap to his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli to 66 points, down from 81, after Antonelli’s fifth-place finish. The points swing leaves the title fight with a reduced margin heading into the next rounds of the season.
