Jaw set resolute on the podium, George Russell gave notice he is not quite ready to go gentle into that good night with a commanding victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. With a lot of ground to make up and not many races left to do it, the win was something of the shot in the arm he required to at least stay within touching distance of the Formula One title.
Russell’s dominant victory from pole to flag in Baku ensured he took advantage of a meeting where his Mercedes teammate and the title leader, Kimi Antonelli, had endured his worst weekend of the season.
That Antonelli delivered a strong comeback to claim fifth from 16th was impressive but also indicative that the 20-year-old Italian had approached his task with one eye on the crown. Nonetheless Russell could not be faulted in doing all he needed to, ensuring he clawed back 15 points, reducing the deficit from 81 to 66 points with eight races remaining.
The victory was the culmination of a meeting where Russell had been on top throughout and virtually untouchable. From pole on Friday, then leading from the front of the field, he delivered a superb, controlled drive that was all but flawless, including managing two tense safety car restarts and holding off being hounded to the line by a very quick Max Verstappen, his lead at the flag just one-tenth of a second.
Pressured hard by the Dutchman climbing all over his gearbox in what was a tense final ten laps after the second safety car, Russell held his nerve with iron control, a salutary reminder that his sketchy form this year belies his real talent.
He had not conceded the lead throughout but very much earned the win by beating the charging Verstappen, who also delivered a fine drive to take second from eighth on the grid, as did his Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar, who took a superb third in his first race after being out for six weeks with an injury.
The race was nonetheless of most import for Russell. This win, his first win at the Azerbaijan GP and his third of the year, is exactly what he needed and appears to vindicate his intent to come back after the summer break and as he noted, drive “instinctively” after his difficulties with the car in the first half of the season. Certainly the confidence he showed in it in Baku it paid off, his sense of calm vindication and pleasure at once more proving himself palpable afterwards.
He has suffered poor luck this season but has also struggled to adjust as well as Antonelli to the new regulations and the new cars, yet when he is on it he is implacable and all but untouchable. A repeat of this form and he might yet believe the title gap to his teammate does not quite seem such a chasm.
“After the summer break I feel like I have gone from strength-to-strength and I feel more like myself, and that’s a good thing,” he said. “Win every race, that’s the gameplan. My teammate has had an incredible season and now we’ve got to crunch time. I’ve got to focus on myself.”
Yet the result must also be considered in the end a good return for Antonelli. Having made an error in qualifying, clipping the barrier early in the session, to come back to fifth was an impressive feat of damage limitation. It again demonstrated his enormously impressive racecraft: this is the second time he has been tasked with coming back in a dominant car, having driven from 19th to the win at Monza. With a longer lap and the field more spread out than in Italy, fifth here might be as high as he could have hoped for.
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It was also the considered and calculated drive of a campaigner with one eye on the championship. He kept out of trouble admirably, including showing lighting reactions when diving out of the way of the pile-up on the first safety car restart that saw Alpine’s Franco Colapinto hurtle into his own teammate Pierre Gasly and in turn collect McLaren’s Lando Norris, leaving the world champion furious and his lingering hopes of a title defence in tatters.
Antonelli had been somewhat out of sorts after losing track time to mechanical problem in practice, and making then his mistake in qualifying, so he had, notably, tempered his usual hard-charging approach.
“George had an incredible weekend, he had a lot of confidence. [But] this weekend was my worst of the year by far in terms of performance,” he said. “I wasn’t there, really present, especially with what happed so early on. Didn’t take the same risks especially after qualifying. Today was more damage-save mode instead of full-on attack.”
He expects of course to come back stronger next weekend at the Bahrain GP in Malaysia, while Russell knows he has still to take a new engine for which there will be a grid penalty to serve. Yet for now, on the streets of Baku, he has at reasserted himself with as comprehensive display of his skill as might be considered possible, and given his teammate a timely reminder that he remains determined to take this title fight as deep as possible.
