George Russell took a narrow win at Baku as he re-enters the 2026 Formula 1 title conversation after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Russell won for the first time in 2026 since the Austrian GP, after taking the chequered flag just a tenth-of-a-second ahead of Max Verstappen at the Baku City Street Circuit.
After a commanding pole lap on Friday, Russell led most of the 51-lap race to cut his championship deficit to team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli to 66 points.
The Mercedes driver has seen a sharp resurgence in performance since the summer break, and reflected on the race as vindication for the patience he and the team showed during his mid-season slump.
“Yeah, it feels it feels great to be honest,” he said.
“I’m very proud of the sort of resilience that I am, my close group of engineers have shown during the tough periods this year, because there’s been a lot of hard work to overcome some of the challenges to adapt my driving style to suit this new car better.
“And F1 is so tough, you don’t get opportunities to practise this.”
Russell described how driving through the process of adapting to these cars resulted in a “flawless” race weekend at Baku.
“And finally, it’s coming to me a bit more intuitively than it once did,” he added.
“And I’m gaining confidence. And especially on circuits like this, it just allows you to eke out that little bit more on the brakes, get that little bit closer to the walls.
And it’s been a flawless weekend.”
George Russell feels he can fight for F1 wins “week in week out” after Azerbaijan GP
Russell had struggled compared to Antonelli to extract the maximum from his W17 package.
This meant while the Italian driver kept extending his championship lead, the Briton was more focused on getting himself in tune with the 2026 machinery.
But the summer break has emerged as somewhat of a turning point for Russell in his title bid.
Since the Dutch GP, Russell has scored podiums at the Netherlands and Monza, finally culminating in a near-perfect race weekend at Baku (Max Verstappen claimed P1 in FP3).
“Yeah, I think I never lost that faith in myself, even through tough moments. I knew there was a reason why I was off the pace,” Russell explained.
Looking forward to the remainder of the 2026 season, Russell believes he can now consistently fight at the sharp end of the field.
“It wasn’t like I just suddenly forgot how to drive. And I knew I would be able to to find it again. I just had to be patient,” he concluded.
“So I feel confident now. It’s been four races since the break and on the front row in three of them. So three podiums from the four races, I feel I can fight for victory week in week out now.”
Russell would be hoping to claw back some more points against his team-mate as F1 returns to Sepang for the Bahrain GP in Malaysia next.
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