Azerbaijan GP 2026 Results: Russell Wins Baku by 0.196s
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Azerbaijan GP results: Russell wins Baku by 0.196s, and his own radio explains the last lap
George Russell won the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix by 0.196 seconds from Max Verstappen after two safety cars wiped out a 12.5 second lead. On the last lap a double yellow cost him seven tenths, and he said so on the radio. Full results, penalties and retirements.
George Russell won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix by 0.196 seconds from Max Verstappen, after two safety cars in six laps erased a lead of more than twelve seconds. Isack Hadjar was third on his return from a broken wrist.
Russell led all 51 laps. That is the part the classification shows. What it does not show is that he was 12.5 seconds clear on lap 30 and 0.196 seconds clear at the flag, and that the last of those tenths went missing in a double yellow zone at Turn 15.
, with the audio and a transcript coloured by who is speaking. Russell's explanation of the last lap is in there, and it is the best thing said all afternoon.
Azerbaijan GP 2026 race results
Top ten from the official Formula 1 classification, 51 laps.
Pos
Driver
Team
Time or gap
Points
1
GeorgeRussell
MercedesMER
1:38:02.143
25
2
MaxVerstappen
Red BullRBR
+0.196s
18
3
IsackHadjar
Red BullRBR
+10.704s
15
4
CharlesLeclerc
FerrariFER
+14.136s
12
5
KimiAntonelli
MercedesMER
+14.512s
10
6
LewisHamilton
FerrariFER
+22.382s
8
7
Arvid
Also classified: Nico Hulkenberg 11th, Liam Lawson 12th, Oscar Piastri 13th, Sergio Perez 14th, Gabriel Bortoleto 15th and Valtteri Bottas 16th, who stopped at Turn 15 with one lap to go.
Did not finish: Franco Colapinto, Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris, all out on lap 36, then Alex Albon (30 laps), Fernando Alonso (20) and Lance Stroll (8).
The last lap, and the radio that explains it
Verstappen crossed the line 0.196 seconds behind. That is the closest finish in the ten races held at Baku. The previous closest was 1.385 seconds, Sergio Perez from Sebastian Vettel in 2021, and the average winning margin across the ten is about seven and a half seconds. Every one of them is measured in every Azerbaijan Grand Prix winner.
One lap earlier the gap was 0.942, and it had not been under half a second since the restart. Russell's last lap was a 1:47.230 against Verstappen's 1:46.520: seven tenths lost in one lap by a driver who had been matching him all stint.
The race control log says what happened. Bottas stopped on lap 50 and on lap 51 the marshals put out a double yellow in track sector 15, with single yellows either side of it. A double yellow means be prepared to stop, and it is not optional.
Russell, on the slowing down lap:
"I lost, after that double yellow, I lost a boost. I had no power. I thought he was going to get us."
His engineer's reply, on the same clip, was "Made you work for your money."
The stewards then deleted eleven final lap times for track limits at Turn 15, the same corner, including Piastri's, Lawson's, Hamilton's, Bearman's and Ocon's. Deleted race laps do not change the classification, but eleven of them at one corner on one lap is a fair measure of how untidy the last 400 metres were.
Verstappen's side of it, from his engineer after the flag:
"0.1, 0.1! Would've been a very good win. Good job guys! Well done Max, that's what you call fighting for the win, I think the win is not too far."
How a 12.5 second win became a 0.196 second win
Russell took pole with a 1:42.526, 0.837 seconds clear of Leclerc, which is an enormous margin on a street circuit where the top ten usually covers under a second. He led from the start and the race was, until lap 30, quiet in the way a Mercedes weekend has often been quiet in 2026.
Then Albon hit the barrier at Turn 6 and the safety car came out on lap 31. Almost the whole field took the cheap pit stop that a safety car hands out. The race restarted on lap 35.
One lap later it was neutralised again. At Turn 1, Colapinto locked up, could not make the corner, hit his own team mate Gasly and put Norris into the run off. All three retired on the spot, and the second safety car ran from lap 36 to lap 38.
Gasly's radio is the one that will get replayed:
"Oh my f*ing god, I can't believe it, I can't believe it, so many f*ing points gone."
Alpine had both cars inside the points when it happened. They scored none. Colapinto was given a ten second time penalty for causing a collision, applied to a race he was no longer in.
By the lap 38 restart, Verstappen was 0.388 seconds behind Russell, having been more than twelve seconds behind eight laps earlier. Neither safety car was anybody's strategy. They simply happened, and they cost Mercedes a comfortable afternoon.
What followed was the best part of the race. For thirteen laps the two cars ran between 0.478 and 0.942 seconds apart and never further. Russell set the fastest lap of the race, a 1:44.916, on lap 49, while defending. Verstappen's best was a 1:44.993 on lap 48. That is 77 thousandths between them over a full lap of Baku, with one car in dirty air.
Hadjar, back from a broken wrist, on the podium
Isack Hadjar had not raced since Hungary in July. He fractured his wrist hitting a punching bag over the summer break and missed Zandvoort, Monza and Madrid while Liam Lawson drove his Red Bull. He came back, qualified fourth, and finished third. It is his second podium of 2026 after Monaco, and it was not a quiet one, because his engineer reported a gearbox problem during the race.
The engineer's line was "so we do see some vibration in the gearbox, nothing on tyres at present, nothing on brakes", and Hadjar answered "yeah I feel this, also going into turn 2, hope nothing too bad because it doesn't sound really good ok".
Earlier, stuck in a train of cars, he had been asked what clear air would be worth:
The engineer asked "Isaac, if you had free air, how much faster could you go?" and Hadjar answered "Two, three tenths, certainly."
His season, race by race, is in Isack Hadjar's 2026, measured. Red Bull scored 33 points on the day, their best of the season.
McLaren scored nothing
Norris started fifth and was taken out of the race by another team's collision. Piastri started third, ran second for 35 laps, then locked up at Turn 1 at the first restart and fell to fifteenth. He finished thirteenth.
Norris stays fourth in the championship on 186 points and is now thirteen behind Hamilton and seven clear of Leclerc, having watched both of them score. Piastri stays seventh.
Penalties, investigations and deleted times
Franco Colapinto: ten second time penalty for causing a collision at Turn 1 on lap 36.
Gabriel Bortoleto: a Turn 7 yellow flag infringement, sent to the stewards after the race. He also had a lap time deleted for track limits at Turn 16.
Carlos Sainz: an opening lap incident, investigated after the race, for failing to follow the race director's instructions.
Max Verstappen: reviewed for the same offence and given no further investigation.
Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson: a Turn 1 incident between the Racing Bulls team mates, investigated. Lawson's view of it, on the radio, was "Man, I love getting taken up by my teammate. That's pretty sick."
Valtteri Bottas: his Turn 15 stop on the final lap was noted and investigated after the race.
Eleven drivers had their final lap times deleted for track limits at Turn 15.
The championship after Baku
Standings before the race plus the points scored in Baku.
Pos
Driver
Points
1
KimiAntonelli
302
2
GeorgeRussell
236
3
LewisHamilton
199
4
LandoNorris
186
5
CharlesLeclerc
179
6
MaxVerstappen
163
Antonelli started sixteenth after crashing in qualifying, finished fifth, and still left Baku further ahead than he arrived: 66 points clear, with 208 still available across the remaining eight rounds. Russell's win is his third of 2026 and moves him no closer in practical terms, because his team mate keeps finishing.
George Russell won for Mercedes on 26 September 2026, 0.196 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen, with Isack Hadjar third. It was Russell's third win of the season.
Why did Lando Norris retire in Baku?
He was caught in a Turn 1 collision on lap 36. Franco Colapinto locked up, hit his Alpine team mate Pierre Gasly, and Norris was put into the run off. All three retired, and Colapinto was given a ten second penalty for causing it.
How close was the finish in Baku?
0.196 seconds. Russell lost about seven tenths on the final lap alone, through a double yellow flag zone at Turn 15 where Valtteri Bottas had stopped.
How many safety cars were there in the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix?
Two, both within six laps. The first on lap 31 for Alex Albon's crash at Turn 6, the second on lap 36 for the Turn 1 collision.
Sources
Classification, points, grid, lap times, flags and race control messages: official F1 timing via FastF1
Every radio message quoted: our own team radio archive
Hear the next one as it happens
Russell's explanation of the last lap was on the radio about 90 seconds after he crossed the line. That is the part of a Grand Prix most people never hear.
The Formula Dream app carries live driver radio as it is broadcast, with the transcript running beside it, a live timing Dashboard (currently in beta) and every FIA document of the weekend, including the stewards' decisions on Colapinto and Bortoleto, the moment they are published.
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Max VerstappenRed Bull · Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2026 · Race · 16:43:34 local
Engineer0.1, 0.1! Would've been a very good win. Good job guys! Well done Max, that's what you call fighting for the win, I think the win is not too far. So, super strong weekend, you were untouchable all weekend.
