Here are his three key takeaways from a 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix won by George Russell.
The Russell of old finally returns
Undoubtedly the biggest surprise to me this season has been the struggles of George Russell, someone who I and many others had believed to be the best driver on the grid after Max Verstappen.
In Baku, though, the Brit looked every bit like the driver who had garnered such a reputation.
He was on fire from the very first qualifying session to the very last lap of the race. The lap he produced to claim pole position by 0.8 seconds - the biggest margin of the season - was absolutely stunning, as were those at the end of the race that he pulled out of the bag to hold off a charging Verstappen.
Surviving an all-out attack by one of the greatest of all time at a circuit as challenging as Baku's is right up there with the biggest challenges an F1 driver can face. Russell had to push to the limit in order to be quick enough to stay in front, and even the smallest of errors could've sent him into the wall and out of the race. To stay cool and stay quick under that level of pressure is immensely impressive.
While his performances have been steadily improving since the summer break, I don't think it's a coincidence that his best one came straight after teammate Kimi Antonelli built up a seemingly unassailable lead in the standings with back-to-back wins. Russell had clearly been struggling with the pressure of a title fight, but maybe it's not weighing on him so much now that fight is all but over, allowing him to drive freely and fearlessly as he always had done before this year.
I doubt that even performances like that at every race weekend will be enough for him to overhaul a 66-point gap to Antonelli, but what they can do is give him the confidence and belief that he can get the better of the prodigy across the garage, and that's something he needs if he wants to bounce back and become a world champion in 2027.
Red Bull are on the rise
While Verstappen wasn't quite able to claim his first win of the season, missing out by less than a second, Red Bull would've still left Azerbaijan in high spirits for a number of reasons.
For the last year or so, I can't imagine that the team have been able to fully enjoy Verstappen's masterclasses, with a part of each staff member surely fearing the possibility of losing such a talent. Now though, he's signed a new long-term deal, and his race in Baku would've made it impossible for them all to be anything but utterly thrilled about that.
The Dutchman more than made up for a rare disappointing qualifying session, possessing scintillating pace to pull off numerous overtakes and come within inches of the win. Watching him use every bit of his barely believable talent to hunt down Russell really was a sight to behold.
Equally as exciting for Red Bull was the fact that number two driver Isack Hadjar produced a top performance on his own on his return from injury. Nobody would have blamed him if he wasn't at his best over the weekend given that he hadn't competed in a race in two months, but he was rapid throughout the weekend, even being a match for Verstappen at times, which is some achievement.
Red Bull also gave the two a capable car for the weekend, and the result was the team's first double podium in 57 races, ending a drought that dated back to 2024.
For the first time in a long time, they have two top drivers secured for years to come, and they seem to be making progress in their efforts to master the new regulations. The future is bright.
The plight of Oscar Piastri
Despite missing three races and having a slower car more often than not, Hadjar is closer to Oscar Piastri in the standings than the Aussie is to any of the other drivers from the top four teams, which is just as damning for the Aussie as it is impressive for the Frenchman.
He was in with a chance of just his third podium of the season in Baku, fighting Hadjar for it with 11 laps to go, but the McLaren man then locked up and lost not just the chance of a podium but the chance of scoring any points at all. And it wasn't the first time this season by any means that his driving left a lot to be desired.
His lack of pace has been a problem for a long time now, with the Aussie being quite comfortably slower than teammate Lando Norris at a number of rounds. At Baku, he finally seemed to have found the pace to get the better of the Brit, and then threw it all away with an error.
He's now scored no podiums in the last 11 races, while Norris has claimed four (including two wins), and the lack of points Piastri is picking up is becoming a problem for McLaren, being the reason that they have little hope of beating Ferrari to second in the Constructors' Championship.
Having thrown an underperforming Daniel Ricciardo to the side to get Piastri in, McLaren CEO Zak Brown is famously ruthless, and while Piastri has far more credit in the bank than his compatriot did, it won't be enough to stop the American from replacing him if he feels a better driver is available. For proof of that, you need only look at the fact that he was holding talks with Verstappen before the Dutchman signed a new Red Bull contract.
It feels crazy to say that Piastri's future with the team could be at risk given he was oh so close to winning the title just a year ago, but Formula 1 waits for no one.
Finley Crebolder has been a news editor for Flashscore since 2023. His specialist areas are Dutch football, Formula 1 and tennis, and being based in London, he can often be found covering sporting events in and around the English capital. You can follow him on X here and read his latest features here.
