AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX

AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX

AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX, Russell claims victory despite Verstappen’s late challenge

For a large portion of Saturday’s race on the streets of Baku, Russell dominated proceedings as he had done a day earlier in Qualifying, where he grabbed pole position by a whopping eight tenths.

Having held the lead at the start, the Briton gradually increased his lead over the chasing pack, initially led by Oscar Piastri, and his margin stood at more than 10 seconds when the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 31 after Alex Albon found the barrier.

Russell then nailed a tricky restart, with the long main straight and late start/finish line offering those behind the chance to use the slipstream for an overtake, which Max Verstappen did successfully on Piastri.

It set up a titanic final leg as the pair circulated together and never drifted more than one second apart, their pace and brushes with the walls meaning they left the rest of the field behind.

Russell managed the gap enough to prevent Verstappen from having a run down the main straight, but a yellow flag on the final lap for Bottas's stricken car at Turn 15 meant he backed off and lost crucial power from his turbo.

It almost opened the door for Verstappen, who fell short of victory by just one tenth as Russell took his first F1 grand slam and just his third win of the season.

It couldn’t have come at a better time, with Russell cutting the gap to team mate Antonelli in the Drivers Standings to 66 points and, perhaps more importantly, having found race-winning performance from his car for the first time since June.