Russell ends win drought with stunning Azerbaijan GP victory as Antonelli stumbles in Baku

George Russell declared he had finally "come through the other side" of a "real tough period" after winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, holding off Red Bull's Max Verstappen in one of the closest finishes in Formula 1 history.

The Mercedes driver's third victory of the 2026 season was his first since the end of June — a seven-race stretch in which team-mate Kimi Antonelli won three times to take his own tally to eight and all but crush Russell's championship hopes. But Sunday's result, combined with Antonelli's fifth place, has cut the gap between the two Mercedes drivers from 81 points to 66, with either seven or eight races still to go and 25 points for a win.

"My team-mate's had an incredible season," Russell said. "He's been pretty flawless throughout, but now we're getting to crunch time."

'The most dominant weekend I've had in my career'

Russell was fastest from the moment he took to the track and never relinquished control of the weekend. With the grand prix brought forward 24 hours from its usual Sunday slot, it was an appropriate result for a man whose qualifying prowess has earned him the nickname 'Mr Saturday'.

"It's for sure the most dominant weekend I've had in my career," Russell said. "So that has come at a really great moment. And also to achieve it on a circuit that requires so much commitment and confidence, I'm really proud of, because it would have been very easy for me to lose the faith this season."

The victory had looked comfortable for a while, as Russell romped away at the front in the first stint while Oscar Piastri delayed Verstappen behind him. But two mid-race safety cars closed up the field and left Verstappen right on Russell's tail. Russell could not shake him off, but he remained flawless throughout — even when slowing for a yellow flag on the final lap caused a loss of turbo boost pressure and left him vulnerable on the run to the flag.

"I'm just going to focus on myself," Russell added. "If I continue delivering performances like I've done this weekend, no matter what happens towards the end of the season, I'll be happy."

How Russell turned his season around

Russell has been through the mill in 2026. He dominated the intra-team battle last year, but the tables turned dramatically this season, as Antonelli felt immediately at home in the new Mercedes after the biggest rule changes in F1 history — and Russell very much did not. Every apparent revival was met with another setback, and every time he felt he had made progress, Antonelli's seemingly effortless ability to extract that little bit more from the car chastened him.

The turnaround has taken hard work and analysis with his engineers. Uncomfortable in this year's car, which he felt did not suit his driving style, Russell has put in the effort to make the driving feel natural again — and he feels he is finally getting somewhere.

"I'm very proud of the resilience that I and my close group of engineers have shown during the tough periods this year, because there's been a lot of hard work to overcome some of the challenges, to adapt my driving style to suit this new car better," Russell said. "And F1 is so tough, you don't get opportunities to practise this, and finally it's coming to me a bit more intuitively than it once did, and I'm gaining confidence. And especially on circuits like this, it just allows you to eke out that little bit more on the brakes, get that little bit closer to the walls, and it's been a flawless weekend."

Deputy team principal Bradley Lord revealed the depth of the struggle behind the scenes: "He had some difficult moments before the summer break, some soul-searching as well at points, and he's come back really strong, focused on the driving, focusing on the essentials of what he needs to do to put his weekends together step by step."

The results speak for themselves. "It's been four races since the break. I've been on the front row in three of them, three podiums from the four races," Russell said. "I feel I can fight for victory week in, week out now."

Antonelli's 'worst weekend of the year'

Antonelli finished off the podium for the first time since the British Grand Prix after a weekend in which nothing went right. Having lost half of the two hours of practice on the opening day, the Italian lost his cool and made a mistake in qualifying, taking a wheel off on an inside wall and starting 16th.

"I felt always a step behind," Antonelli admitted. "And especially with the mistake in qualifying the confidence level was not high and today was about damage limitation."

"Just probably also the mindset was not in the best place. I wasn't there. I wasn't really present, especially with what happened so early on, and just didn't take the same risks, especially after qualifying. Today was more damage-safe mode instead of full attack. I just make sure next weekend we get back in the right level."

Fifth was a very creditable comeback result, but it was still the 18-year-old's own worst assessment of his season — he called it his "worst weekend of the year in terms of performance". If he bounces back, it will go down as a blip in an otherwise stunningly impressive breakthrough season by a potential future great.

Monza scars and an ominous parallel

For Russell, Baku was redemption after one of the most painful experiences of his career. At the Italian Grand Prix two races ago, he started from the front row while Antonelli lined up 19th after a grid penalty — a golden opportunity to make up ground. Instead, it was Antonelli who won the race with what will go down as one of the greatest drives in history, and Russell looked on the verge of tears afterwards. In Baku, the belief he kept through it all finally paid off.

There are also unavoidable parallels with last year. In 2025, McLaren's Oscar Piastri arrived in Azerbaijan apparently in control of the championship with a big lead over team-mate Lando Norris — albeit less than half of Antonelli's current margin — before suffering a meltdown on the streets of Baku in what he described after returning to the city this week as "the worst race of my career". After that, the wheels came off for the Australian, and by the end of the year he had been overtaken not only by Norris but also by Verstappen.

There is no reason to believe Antonelli will suffer the same fate, but he still has something to process in the few days before taking to the track again in Malaysia on Friday.

Upgrade hope on the horizon

Mercedes have lost their early-season dominance over the summer, but Russell believes the first big upgrade in a while, due at the next round, could change the picture. "I'm really excited. That's going to be a good step forward," he said.

"Our car has been working exceptionally well on the low-drag circuits. We've got a really efficient car, so here at Baku we've been exceptionally fast. But I think from next week onwards, we're hoping to make a bigger step to the rest of the field. But nothing's sure until we see how it pans out in reality."

And even if Antonelli remains a strong favourite for the title, Russell sees the psychological balance of power shifting. "There's much less pressure on me than there is on him," he said.