George Russell won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on Saturday 26 September, holding off Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 0.196 seconds. The victory cut the championship lead of his Mercedes team-mate, Kimi Antonelli, from 81 points to 66, in the first season of Formula 1's sweeping new technical rules. Isack Hadjar completed the podium for Red Bull, and Antonelli recovered from 16th on the grid to finish fifth.
The result tightened a title fight that Antonelli has led after a spectacular start to the season, in the words of Gulf News. With the final two rounds scheduled for Qatar and Abu Dhabi, the first champion of Formula 1's new era may well be crowned under Gulf floodlights.
A tense race in Baku
The race ran 51 laps and was interrupted by two safety-car periods, when the field is slowed behind a course car while an incident is cleared. It was Russell's third win of the season and ended a three-month wait for victory. The pressure lasted to the end: a last-lap crash by Cadillac's Valtteri Bottas forced Russell and Verstappen to slow.
Behind the podium, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was fourth and Lewis Hamilton sixth, either side of Antonelli. Arvid Lindblad took seventh for Racing Bulls, the Haas pair of Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman were eighth and ninth, and Carlos Sainz was tenth for Williams. Hadjar's podium came on his return from a wrist fracture. The defending champion, McLaren's Lando Norris, was taken out in a crash started by Alpine's Franco Colapinto, AP reported.
Verstappen has yet to win a race this year. If that does not change, AP notes, 2026 will be his first winless season since his rookie year of 2015.
Russell was generous about his rival and clear about his own form. "My teammate's had an incredible season. He's been pretty flawless throughout, but now we're getting to crunch time," he said, according to AP. He added: "Every race since the (mid-season) break I have gone from strength to strength and I feel more like myself again."
Antonelli's year
Antonelli joined Mercedes in 2025 as Lewis Hamilton's replacement, so this is only his second season in Formula 1. Earlier this month he won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza after starting from the back of the grid, his seventh win of the year, Gulf News reported, and the paper wrote that he had shown he was ready to become the youngest world champion.
The record he is chasing belongs to Sebastian Vettel, who won the 2010 title aged 23 years and 134 days. Antonelli, born in Bologna on 25 August 2006, turned 20 last month.
What the new rules changed
This season brought the biggest technical reset Formula 1 has seen in years. The new power units take roughly half their output from the combustion engine and half from electrical power. The MGU-H, a device that recovered energy from exhaust heat, has been dropped, and the cars run on 100 per cent sustainable fuel.
The cars themselves are smaller and lighter, and they use active aerodynamics: front and rear wing elements that move to cut drag on the straights. These replace DRS, the opening rear-wing flap that drivers used for overtaking until last year.
The grid has grown too. Audi has entered as a works team, taking over Sauber, and Cadillac has joined as the 11th team. In Baku, Nico Hulkenberg finished 11th for Audi and Sergio Perez 14th for Cadillac.
Big rule changes often reshuffle the order, and this one has put Mercedes at the front: the two drivers at the top of the championship both race for the team. For now, the title is a contest between team-mates.
A Gulf finale
Several rounds remain, including Singapore, Austin, Mexico City, São Paulo and Las Vegas. Then the season ends with two Gulf weekends. The Qatar Grand Prix at Lusail is scheduled for 27 to 29 November, with the race, run at night, on 29 November. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina, the season finale, is due to run from 4 to 6 December, with the race starting in daylight and finishing under floodlights on 6 December. Neither Gulf round is a Sprint weekend this year.
A Grand Prix win is worth 25 points, so a 66-point lead is less than the value of three victories. Antonelli remains the favourite, but Russell has momentum. If the gap keeps closing, Gulf fans could see the first title of the new rules settled on home ground.
Sources: The Race, Associated Press, Gulf News, Formula 1