Baku 2026: Won by a Tenth

Two safety cars, a restart that destroyed four cars, and a drag race to the line that came down to 0.1 seconds.

P1George Russell · Mercedeswinner P2Max Verstappen · Red Bull+0.1s P3Isack Hadjarpodium

The images on this page are brick-built renders, not photographs. They illustrate the race rather than document it.

Chaos and charges at Turn 1

The Baku grid streaming towards Turn 1 on lap 1, cars two abreast between the pit wall and the barriers. — Lap 1 of 51. The long run to Turn 1 is where Baku decides who it likes.

Lights out in Baku, and the action started immediately on the long run down to Turn 1. Oscar Piastri made a brilliant launch from the grid, squeezing past Leclerc's Ferrari to snatch P2. Behind them, Lando Norris swept around Isack Hadjar on the grippier outside line, securing a double position gain for McLaren in the opening corners of the street circuit.

The Red Bull blitz

Isack Hadjar's car wheel to wheel with Charles Leclerc's Ferrari, a second Red Bull car following behind. — Hadjar goes down the inside of Leclerc into Turn 1, with Verstappen watching from behind.

Red Bull showed frightening race pace through the middle of the Grand Prix. Isack Hadjar launched a daring attack on Charles Leclerc into Turn 1, running wheel to wheel with the Ferrari before locking down P3. With Max Verstappen on his tail, the team organised a swift swap rather than a fight, letting both cars hunt down the leaders without wasting a second.

A Red Bull leading a Ferrari and a second Red Bull along a straight lined with Pirelli barriers. — The swap done, and no time lost arguing about it.

Into the TechPro barrier

Alex Albon's Williams buried nose first in the barrier with debris scattered across the track and two marshals waving yellow flags. — Nose first into the wall, and no quick way to clear it.

Drama struck in the heavy braking zones. Lando Norris went wide with a costly lockup, and moments later Alex Albon lost the car and slammed into the TechPro barriers. With carbon fibre across the track and a car buried in the wall, there was no quick clean-up. The safety car came out at once, bunching the entire pack up for a restart nobody wanted.

Restart mayhem

Four cars piled into each other at Turn 1 in a cloud of debris, an Alpine and two McLarens among them, with a wheel in mid-air. — Cold tyres, a compressed pack, and a braking zone that punishes both.

The green flag produced total chaos. Pushed to the limit on cold tyres, Franco Colapinto misjudged his braking point into Turn 1, skidding into Pierre Gasly and collecting Lando Norris on the way through. Behind them, Lawson and Lindblad made contact at almost the same moment. Alpine's double points finish evaporated in a few seconds and a shower of shattered carbon fibre.

Piastri's lockup, Hadjar's podium

Cockpit view over the halo of Oscar Piastri's McLaren, the locked front tyre trailing smoke as the car runs wide at a corner lined with Qatar Airways boards. — The front left goes away, and with it the podium.

On the second restart the pressure proved relentless. Oscar Piastri tried to hold on to his podium position, but a heavy front tyre lockup into Turn 1 forced him wide. Hadjar took the invitation instantly, diving through to claim the last podium place while Piastri tumbled out of the points altogether.

The 0.1-second drag race

A Red Bull and a Mercedes side by side crossing the finish line under the gantry as a marshal waves the chequered flag. — Side by side to the line. Russell by a tenth.

The Grand Prix came down to a breathtaking finish. Max Verstappen locked on to George Russell's gearbox on the final lap and used the enormous Baku slipstream to mount a charge down the main straight. The two drag raced side by side towards the line, and Russell held on by the barest of margins, crossing 0.1 seconds ahead for a monumental win.

George Russell on the top step of the Baku podium in Mercedes overalls, waving, with the trophy beside him. — A win that was in doubt until the final hundred metres.

George Russell holding the winner's trophy above his Mercedes with the Baku flame towers and old city walls behind. — Baku does this most years. It rarely does it this close.

Think you would have called it better?

Every driver in that race got where they are by making decisions like the ones above, and hundreds more away from the track. Which team to sign for. When to take the blame. When to gamble a season on one move.

In Chasing P1 you start at sixteen and find out how far your own decisions take you. Free, no sign-up, plays in a browser.

Play Chasing P1 →