Russell wins in Azerbaijan to trim Antonelli’s F1 lead

Oscar Piastri’s Baku misery has resurfaced again, with the Australian losing a potential podium finish when he came off the track while George Russell went on to complete an immaculate triumph at a crash-marred Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Australian, whose championship hopes began to fall apart last year when he crashed on the tight road circuit with which he’s had a “love-hate relationship”, this time locked up with third place within his grasp with 10 laps to go in Saturday’s race and slid straight into the run-off.

By the time he got back on track, he was 15th, his hopes of any points gone, and he ended up 14th, with McLaren suffering double woe after Lando Norris had earlier crashed out, maddened by being the innocent victim in a multiple crash caused by a Franco Colapinto error.

Up ahead, Russell, who led from start to finish and survived the pressure of two restarts under the safety car, held off Max Verstappen in a dramatic finish to win his first race for three months and cut into Mercedes’ teammate Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead.

Russell managed to defend from Verstappen, who charged through the field from eighth to second, despite his Mercedes losing power in the denouement as Valtteri Bottas’s last-lap crash in his Cadillac forced both the leaders to slow as the finish line approached.

At the end, Russell had less than two-tenths of a second to spare over his old rival, which was less than he’d won his pole by in qualifying.

“I lost the boost, I had no power. Thought he was going to get us,” a relieved Russell said.

Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar was third in a superb return from injury.

Antonelli, who’d started 16th after a qualifying crash, ended up battling his way through to fifth as he limited the damage to his title lead, and is still 66 points ahead.

But Piastri couldn’t hide his disappointment at the miserable conclusion to what had been a weekend where he’d rekindled his ‘love’ for the track where he’d won in 2024.

On the soft tyres, he had whipped past Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the start to move from third to second and then held off the challenge of the Red Bulls impressively over the first half of the race.

But after Alex Albon went into the wall on lap 31 and Piastri found himself on the mediums after everyone pitted under the yellow flag, he was picked off immediately by Verstappen on the restart.

Then, soon after the race had to be restarted again once Colapinto caused the crash which took out both his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly and Norris, Piastri bemoaned his slide-off error when under pressure from Hadjar.

“I need to go and look, it certainly took me by surprise, I didn’t think I braked super-late or super-hard, but just instantly locked both fronts so I need to obviously look at that,” said the Victorian.

“Just a disappointing end to the day. The first half of the race was very strong, so it’s a shame not to have anything to show for it.”

Norris had been left dismayed by his race ending because Colapinto locked up while ploughing recklessly down the inside after the safety-car restart, an error which the Argentine apologised for profusely.

Norris, though, muttered darkly: “Just some drivers that shouldn’t be in Formula One to be honest.”

He felt the Argentine should get a one-race ban because “that’s not driving that deserves to be in Formula One”.

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