Five quick takeaways from Azerbaijan GP

Russell uses his chance to close the gap

Well, let’s not overstate anything. There’s no championship battle as such – and George Russell’s Baku win didn’t really increase his chances dramatically. From one percent to about two, probably – but hardly more.

Yet, one must say: well done. Given the advantage Mercedes had over the opposition, it would still be over the top to get too excited – and it was definitely a bit weird to hear Russell being asked during Friday’s press conference whether his championship comeback could start now.

But it was perhaps Russell’s most convincing weekend of the year, bar Australia – even if Kimi Antonelli didn’t really have a chance to show what he could do thanks to his own mistake in Q1.

Russell did what he had to do. He put the car on pole with a huge advantage, converted it into victory and took full advantage of a rare bad day for his usually flawless team-mate.

Does that prove Russell can still win the title this year? Perhaps not. But as a timely reminder that he’s not slow and doesn’t deserve to be written off completely? For sure.

– Oleg Karpov

Hadjar proves why Red Bull picked him as Verstappen’s long-term team-mate

Isack Hadjar’s place at Red Bull was never in doubt while he was out with a wrist injury, but when the French driver was given a contract extension on the eve of his F1 return it did raise a few eyebrows. Where was this vote of confidence coming from?

Roll the tape. Hadjar did exactly what Red Bull as employed him to do; he qualified an impressive fourth to be in the thick of the action after Max Verstappen endured his mechanical hiccups and Hadjar followed it up with playing the team game in the race.

Having relinquished a promising position early in the race to his team-mate, Hadjar acted as wingman – and even asking Verstappen to hurry up – which is something that hasn’t happened since Sergio Perez’s early Red Bull years.

Navigating two safety car restarts, and forcing Oscar Piastri into a mistake, saw Hadjar follow Verstappen on to the podium to complete a very impressive comeback race and demonstrate why he is a Red Bull driver.

– Haydn Cobb

Williams flatters to deceive with B-spec

Williams put a lot of stock in its long-awaited FW48 B-spec in Baku, which featured an all-new, lighter chassis and a redesigned floor. Ahead of the event, the team played down expectations, seeing the update as a stepping stone to better things in 2027 rather than a revolutionary leap.

The Azerbaijan weekend confirmed as much, though it was reinvigorating for Williams to be in the mix again in the midfield, allowing Carlos Sainz to advance to Q3. But with the high-speed street circuit appearing to play to the Mercedes-powered team’s natural strengths, to still be far away from points on Saturday feels like a missed opportunity. One wonders if the higher downforce loops of Malaysia and Singapore will be as kind to the FW48. The jury is still out.

– Fil Cleeren

Alpine’s own goal as Colapinto makes his first major mistake of 2026

Alpine looked set to secure another strong result as the best of the rest for the third consecutive race weekend, with both drivers on course to score points. But Baku once again showed how quickly things can change in Formula 1.

Franco Colapinto, Alpine, Nico Hulkenberg, Audi F1 Team

Photo by: Joe Portlock / Getty Images

Franco Colapinto arrived too fast into Turn 1 at the restart following the Safety Car period triggered by Alex Albon’s crash, hitting his team-mate Pierre Gasly, who in turn made contact with Lando Norris’s McLaren.

The Argentine was quick to apologise to Gasly and the entire Alpine team for what was a clear and costly mistake, coming at a time when the team is locked in a tight battle with Racing Bulls for fifth place in the constructors’ championship.

After the tension between Gasly and Colapinto at the end of the previous race in Madrid, followed by the online abuse directed at the Frenchman, Alpine’s handling of the situation – both internally and publicly – will be worth watching.

– Federico Faturos

Perez shows his street racing class

Sergio Perez was a remarkable P13 in Thursday’s second practice session, and a second a lap quicker than his similarly experienced team-mate Valtteri Bottas. The Finn had a new floor and dampers for qualifying, which he described as transformative, but in the race Perez simply drove away from him at between one and two seconds a lap.

Perez has an uncanny ability on street tracks, neat and precise, well capable of manipulating the rear axle into a slide without bringing it into the wall. He’s long since tamed the unruliness of style which characterised his early season in F1; now he’s the archetypal ‘tyre whisperer’.

This writer received an unexpected invitation to watch FP2 from the Cadillac garage, and naturally took up position on Perez’s side. His driving here was even instructive for the team; at one point race engineer Carlo Pasetti queried what he thought was an unusual brake shape into Turn 1.

Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Alex Pantling / LAT Images via Getty Images

“Baku style,” replied Perez, keeping a few secrets in his box.

In the race he shadowed the Audis early on, opening up a gap of over 20s to his team-mate. The Safety Car chaos briefly afforded him a chance to snatch P13 from faster cars before Gabriel Bortoleto and Oscar Piastri came past.

P15 was scant reward for another classy display, and it likely went unnoticed by many fans since attention was focused on the battle up front between George Russell and Max Verstappen. But the massive gap to Bottas before the Finn’s final-lap crash will have raised eyebrows on the Cadillac pitwall…

– Stuart Codling

Photos from F1 Azerbaijan GP – Saturday

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