Only just. By one tenth of a second. Practically a photo-finish. But victory for George Russell at the Azerbaijan Grand, pulled off with Max Verstappen right alongside him, means the Briton can just glimpse the prize on the horizon – the world title he craves.
Hmm, it still requires binoculars to detect it clearly, but it is no longer out of sight.
After this dramatic win, one of the best of Russell’s career, he remains 66 points behind his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who finished fifth.
But the team’s senior driver, 28, felt rejuvenated enough afterwards to delve into the box of mind games regarding the 20-year-old Italian who leads him.
‘There is much less pressure on me than there is on him,’ said Russell, who vowed to aim for victory in each one of the remaining eight races.
‘It is the most dominant weekend I have had in my career. And it has come at a really great moment. I am really proud of this.
George Russell claimed his first win in three months as he claimed the Azerbaijan Granx Prix
He beat Max Verstappen by less than a second, denying the Dutchman a first win of the year
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli could only finish fifth, having crashed in qualifying and started 16th
‘It would have been easy for me to lose the faith, not about winning the championship, but in terms of my ability, and that never happened.’
Russell had not stood on the top step of the podium for three months almost to the day, in Austria, and confidence was hissing out of him like a punctured tyre. Antonelli was the coming kid, an unstoppable Exocet, or so it seemed.
So this was a magnificent afternoon of cheer for Russell. There are 208 points to fight over yet, including one sprint race in Singapore, which follows ‘the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia’ next weekend, reassigned owing to war in the Middle East.
It’s precisely in Kuala Lumpur that Russell needs to put his foot on Antonelli’s larynx again, and then to keep it there.
Here, it was the boy wonder who stymied himself by crashing in qualifying and starting 16th. Is that the pressure about which Russell talked, and tried to quadruple?
Antonelli dropped a place at the start but revived his race slice by slice. He was not too impressed with his own performance, though, saying: ‘I was driving a bit like my grandmother today. I was taking no risks. It was about saving points.
‘If I’d had the pace I did in Monza (where he won earlier this month from 19th on the grid), I could have raced differently but I realised I didn’t and that it would be hard to overtake. I just took advantage of others’ misfortunes.
‘It wasn’t the usual Kimi.’
Perhaps, he was a bit harsh on himself even if, yes, he was helped by a couple of safety cars, the first bunching up the field when he was running ninth.
This punctuation in proceedings, brought about by Alex Albon bashing his Williams into the wall at Turn 5, allowed everyone to stop for fresh rubber. Nobody had pitted by this stage.
Russell had priorly been sailing ahead from pole, the man ruling the race by a distance. His advantage at the time of the safety car’s maiden tour stood in double figures, 10 or 11 seconds. Yes, his Mercedes was mighty quick but he was making full use of its potential around Baku’s tight streets.
Returning to Antonelli’s situation. The safety car peeled off and the next moment Franco Colapinto of Alpine came rolling into the first corner like a 10-pin bowling ball. He crashed into his team-mate Pierre Gasly and took him out. Gasly then ricocheted into Lando Norris, a second helpless victim of the recklessness. The world champion was out, as was Gasly, and the safety car was recalled.
Norris called afterwards for Colapinto to be banned for a race. The stewards instead handed down a five-place grid penalty for ‘Bahrain in Malaysia’. Which was about justice.
Anyway, the incident gifted Antonelli seventh place. He later passed Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri, who ran off the road, to claim his finishing position.
Russell was too fast for everyone all weekend. Yet having established his huge lead that was eroded by the crashes, he found himself in a battle with Verstappen at the end.
Ironically, Verstappen had been struggling for speed earlier but was then flying, having moved on to soft tyres, just as Russell had, the pair on the same strategy.
The Dutchman, for all his harrying, had to settle for second place, though it looked as if he might just pass Russell as they roared to the line wheel-to-wheel. It was touch and go in one of the closest finishes in Formula One history.
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar finished third. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc came fourth, holding off Antonelli’s charge by 0.3sec, with Hamilton sixth.
But the only man smiling ear to ear was George Russell… with his binoculars out.
