Azerbaijan Grand Prix Review: Russell Wins as Antonelli Surges to Fifth

We have an exciting race weekend ahead of us, the first of the triple header, and we are at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the Baku circuit.

Let’s get going

In FP1, there were problems for the championship leader, Antonelli, after losing hydraulic power, as his teammate Russell exceeded expectations and set the quickest lap of the session. It was lovely to see Hadjar back in the Redbull car after missing several races due to a wrist injury, but it will take a couple of sessions for him to feel comfortable again. Williams had a tricky moment as Sainz’s brakes caught a light. 

Several cars got a bit too close to the wall at turn 15, and Lindblad hit the wall at turn 8 pretty hard, bringing out a red flag for FP2. Antonelli seemed to be struggling hard in FP3, going wide and locking up. It seems to be a tight battle between Mercedes, Ferrari and Redbull. 

Qualifying commences

Only a few minutes into Q1, Stroll has a lock-up and goes off track but manages to keep going with minimal damage. Hadjar is looking strong straight from the start, setting the quick laps as his teammate and Russell find issues with their cars. 

And it all comes crashing down for our current championship leader as Antonelli crashes into the wall, and he gets it going, but there are parts that are broken and will need fixing, so a brief yellow flag is shown to get Antonelli’s car back to the garage. Antonelli has secured a time that’s good enough to get him through to Q2, where he will finish 16th. 

Norris also endures some trouble as he only manages 12th quickest after having a poor lap and going wide; he goes again for a quick lap, but there’s not a lot of time left. Russell is setting the quickest times in Q1 so far, and let’s hope for Mercedes; he can do well since his teammate is out. 

The final few seconds go, and we have another yellow flag as Stroll stops again, but the cars out are both Aston Martins, both Cadillac drivers and Hulkenberg and Bortoletto just missing out – a shame for Audi. 

Moving onto Q2, and we have a yellow flag for Arvid Lindblad, who can’t turn and drives into the run-off area; we get underway quickly, and Lindblad seems to have no damage. Racing Bulls seem to be struggling at this track. 

Antonelli will be in 16th place due to the wall hit that ended his qualifying, but the rest of the field are fighting to not be the 5 cars joining him. Unfortunately, both Racing Bulls are out, with Lindblad in 15th and Lawson in 12th. Ocon takes 14th, and Albon can only manage 13th, but his teammate Sainz makes it through to Q1 for the first time and Colapinto pits Bearman to the post, making it through – a shame for Haas, though. 

Deep into Q3 and both McLarens are looking like the drivers to beat, as Piastri has the fastest lap with Norris just behind him, but we haven’t seen what the Ferraris look like yet. A brief yellow flag comes out as Colapinto goes off track at corner 15, going off into the run-off area but has no damage. 

The final quick laps are underway as Norris brings out a brief yellow flag, having a huge lock-up and going into the run-off area, which affected Verstappen’s run too, meaning Norris finished in 5th and Verstappen in 8th. 

A whopping lap from Russell as he takes pole position; Leclerc slipped into 2nd ahead of Piastri in 3rd. A terrific lap from Hadjar, getting 4th after having time off, and Hamilton takes 6th, split by Norris. Gasly reaches 7th, and his teammate takes 10th, with Sainz securing 9th. 

We have 3 different teams in the top 3, which will definitely lead to an exciting race tomorrow, and I would not count out the current championship leader, Kimi Antonelli. 

We later hear that Sainz will have a 5-grid-place penalty for not slowing down during a yellow flag, so he’ll be starting in 14th, which is such a shame after a successful qualifying for Williams. Perez also receives a 3-grid-place penalty for impeding Piastri during qualifying, so he’ll be starting in last place.

It’s Mr Saturday

As the sun beams down on the Azerbaijan track, we’re ready to watch 22 drivers fight for their lives.

Russell is quick off the line and has a good start as Piastri immediately overtakes Leclerc, moving into 2nd. Hadjar falls back a place as Norris gets ahead of him, and his teammate Verstappen jumps both Alpines and is onto Hamilton. Antonelli has lost a place on the start, falling to 17th; it’s going to be hard to come back from that. 

Hadjar is all over the back of Norris, desperate to regain his position as Verstappen goes on the inside of Hamilton and gets ahead, up into 6th behind his teammate. Russell is 1.3 seconds ahead of Piastri, a good start for him so far. 

On lap 3, Hadjar excels down the straight and gets ahead of Norris, splitting him and his teammate, but that could become a problem later down the line. Only a few corners later, Verstappen also overtakes Norris up into 5th.  Lawson is up into the points after jumping Bearman on the start. 

Hadjar manages to squeeze ahead of Leclerc, and he’s up into 3rd – both Red Bulls showing excellent pace so far; both of them started on soft tyres. Verstappen is now chasing after Leclerc as Russell is now 2.4 seconds ahead of Piastri, striding away. Verstappen secures a beautiful slipstream and blasts past Leclerc. 

Antonelli’s also making moves as he gets ahead of Hulkenberg, Sainz and Lindblad, moving up to 14th. I wouldn’t count him out just yet. Verstappen is setting the fastest laps of any driver. On lap 7, Verstappen easily overtakes Hadjar, working together as a cohesive team, and Verstappen is up into 3rd. 

On lap 9, there’s a brief yellow flag as Stroll’s car stops, but they manage to get it off track swiftly, so there’s no safety car – Stroll’s 11th DNF dealing with mechanical issues. The race continues for the other 21 drivers as Russell extends his lead, as he’s 5 seconds ahead of Piastri, and both Red Bulls are getting closer to Piastri. 

Verstappen is 0.3 seconds away from Piastri and is desperate to get ahead of him as Antonelli is now up into 12th after overtaking Ocon and Albon. The field is very tight together, so a pit stop would be damaging, as losing 20 seconds would put you at least 15 places down. 

Hadjar is now within a second of his teammate, so it might get feisty between these 2 drivers. On lap 13, Verstappen is complaining about his medium tyre and seems to be losing a little bit of time compared to his teammate. 

Will Redbull play the team game?

Russell reports that the wind has picked up and there’s a heavier gust, which can affect how the drivers make decisions on when to turn and in what direction their car goes. Hamilton is catching up to Norris, ready to battle for 6th place as soon enough overtakes him, as Antonelli is now up into 10th, into the points. 

There’s a problem with Norris’ car, a fuel injection problem which can’t be fixed till the end of the race. As there are problems at Redbull as Verstappen complaining about his tyres and not being able to put pressure on Piastri anymore, whereas Hadjar behind him has the pace, so let’s see if they will invert the cars. 

On lap 22 it’s a double DNF for Aston Martin as Alonso retires. Antonelli swiftly overtakes Colapinto and is up into 9th place, a good, strong race from him after his disastrous qualifying. Red Bull believes the soft tyre is showing the best race pace over the medium. 

Russell is nearly 10 seconds ahead of Piastri out in front as he has a close encounter with a wall, but he seems to not have sustained any damage. As Hadjar makes a move on Verstappen, Verstappen defends him off for now. 

On lap 30, Norris suffers a massive lock-up, goes off track and loses 2 places to Gasly and Antonelli. He gets back on track quickly, but McLaren needs to pit Norris soon. Albon locks up and crashes into the wall, and a safety car is released. This could be a great chance for quick pit stops, but the top leaders have already gone past the pit entrance. 

Gasly, Antonelli and Norris pit; this could be a lucky chance for them. There is a significant amount of damage which will need to be cleared, so the leaders who missed out on the first lap will get to pit. Russell, Piastri and both Redbulls are called to pit. Redbull have to double-stack, but they must pit so that they get a quicker pit stop and not lose track position. 

A few tricky moments in all the chaos of pitting for several cars: Verstappen locked up on the entrance, and Hamilton’s pit crew had problems getting on his tyre. Russell will lose his 10-second gap advantage as the pack will all be tight together as the safety car still leads whilst they clear Albon’s car from the track.

Restart madness

On lap 35, the safety car is ending, so let’s see if Russell can get a good start with all the hungry cars behind him. And it’s chaos as Verstappen launches a hard overtaking move on Piastri, and there’s a big crash between both Alpine cars, Lawson and Norris, bringing back the safety car. 

Norris and Gasly are out of the race after Colapinto locked up on the inside and crashed into his teammate Gasly, and he knocked into Norris. Both Racing Bulls banged into each other too as Lindblad went into Lawson. Both Ocon and Bearman managed to not get involved and have gone up into 8th and 9th; Haas will be pleased. 

Colapinto makes it back to the pits but unfortunately will retire after Alpine were on to score points, and a disappointing end for them – a bad mistake from Colapinto. Antonelli has also managed to escape this crash and get up into 7th. On lap 38, the safety car for the 2nd time has been called in, and Russell will need to start with Verstappen right behind him. 

13 laps to go and it’s all up in the air who will be on the final podium. Russell goes off, keeping Verstappen at bay, with Piastri defending his position against Hadjar, followed by both Ferraris and Antonelli in the top 7. Russell looks strong, but Verstappen is within a second, so he can use his DRS to overtake. Piastri and Hadjar are fighting hard for 3rd position. 

Piastri locks up and goes wide as Hadjar swoops ahead, and Piastri is now down to 14th out of the points what chaos. Hadjar is up into 3rd, with exceptional driving as he avoids the Piastri issue. Hadjar is about 3 seconds away from his teammate; both Red Bulls look like they will have a double podium celebration, whereas both Mclarens are out of the points. 

Antonelli is now in 6th place from 16th, and he’s hunting down the Ferraris, desperate to pick up some more points. Verstappen is now only 0.6 seconds away from Russell and is getting closer with each lap. Antonelli lunges ahead of Hamilton and is up into 5th place with 8 laps to go; can he make it to the podium? 

5 laps to go and Verstappen is only 0.4 seconds behind Russell; it is awfully close between them. Antonelli sustained some damage to his floor after the 2nd restart chaos, but an excellent job from him in today’s race. Verstappen is looking strong in these final laps; he could definitely win this if Russell makes a mistake. 

Lindblad is catching up to Bearman, fighting for 8th place, and he goes down the inside of Bearman and manages to squeeze past, whilst Hadjar looks settled in 3rd place, but his teammate is catching up to Russell. 

Russell is managing to keep Verstappen to 2nd place, but with one more final lap to race, will the Mercedes be out on top? Bottas goes into the barrier on the final lap, bringing a yellow flag, but only for that area on track, as we watch Russell and Verstappen fight right till the end of the lap, only 0.1 split between them as Russell crosses the line 1st. 

So on the podium we have Russell in 1st with Verstappen in 2nd and a fantastic drive from Hadjar to get 3rd – I’m sure Redbull will be pleased to get a double podium. Leclerc held on to 4th, and Antonelli had a super drive, went from 16th to 5th and scored some good points to extend his championship lead. 

Hamilton took 6th, and Lindblad just pinned Ocon to the line coming in 7th, with both Haas in 8th and 9th in an unexpected point-scoring race for them. Sainz snagged 10th place for Williams, salvaging a final point after Albon’s disappointing DNF. Suffering for McLaren fans as Piastri finished 14th and no points were scored for them after Norris’ DNF too. 

7 DNF’s, many yellow flags, 2 safety cars and 1 Mercedes winner – what a race. 

A very exciting race in Azerbaijan, and it just shows you can never predict anything in a Formula 1 race. We will be back next weekend for the 2nd race in this triple header, where Malaysia will be hosting the Bahrain Grand Prix. This will be a brand new circuit for nearly all the drivers, and it will be exciting to see how they do.