Week 15 took us to the largest city on the Caspian Sea and after all the lack of excitement at the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks ago expectations were not at their highest, so I was prepared to slip in some fun Azerbaijan facts. But unfortunately, the race was actually quite good, so you do not get to hear about how Azerbaijan is home to over 400 mud volcanos or the Baku is the lowest lying capital city in the world at 28 meters below sea level. Anyway. Onto the racing…

Qualifying

Q1 saw Antonelli clip the inside wall at Turn 1 on his in-lap, shattering his track-rod and ending his session. Ironically, his earlier lap was still good enough to send him into Q2. Aston Martin and Cadillac had found their usual places, occupying the lower reaches of the order, with the Audis also unable to escape Q1.

In Q2, Lindblad locked up into Turn 1, ruining his chance of improving his time. Williams looked noticeably stronger following their upgrades, while Alpine managed to get both cars through. Antonelli, Lindblad, Ocon, Albon, Lawson and Bearman were eliminated.

Q3 brought an intriguing strategy. McLaren began with two warm-up laps before the push lap, and almost everyone quickly copied them. Hadjar was particularly keen to impress following his injury spell and new contract, while Leclerc once again looked at home around Baku. The Ferrari driver has made qualifying at this circuit something of a speciality, taking pole in 2024 and 2022 and both the Sprint and full-race poles in 2023.

Norris' lock-up at Turn 3 cost him his attempt, while Gasly continued to look competitive against Hamilton and Verstappen. Colapinto did not set a lap at all. At the front, Russell produced the largest qualifying gap seen since the current qualifying regulations were introduced in 2006.

The final order was Russell, Leclerc, Piastri, Hadjar, Norris, Hamilton, Gasly, Verstappen, Sainz and Colapinto, although Sainz would later drop five places for failing to slow sufficiently for yellow flags.

Race Day

Lights out and away we go…

Russell made a commanding start to take the lead, with Piastri moving into second. Verstappen launched brilliantly, climbing to fifth by Lap 2, while Antonelli initially lost a place to Hulkenberg before recovering it on Lap 4.

Hadjar was on a mission. On Lap 4 he swept past Leclerc for third, while Verstappen followed his teammate, passing the Ferrari by the end of the lap. The Red Bulls looked like the fastest cars on track in the early periods of the race and by Lap 6 Verstappen had caught his teammate. He passed him at the end of the lap after Red Bull absolutely did not encourage Hadjar to let Max take the reins.

Further back, Sainz endured a terrible start, falling to 15th, while Antonelli quietly began his recovery. By Lap 10 he was already up to 13th.

The race remained incredibly tight: by Lap 12, P2 to 19 were separated by just 29 seconds. Up front, Russell had extended his advantage to seven seconds by Lap 15, casually commenting on the slight increase in wind. It rather summed up his early race.

Hamilton and Norris battled through Lap 16, with Norris locking up and Hamilton completing the pass at the end of the straight. Meanwhile, championship leader Antonelli had climbed his way back into the points positions taking P10. The soft tyres were proving more durable than initially thought, with nobody yet having pitted.

On Lap 20, Hadjar had another look at Verstappen into Turn 1, producing flashbacks to Verstappen's famous 2018 collision with Ricciardo. Bottas and Alonso were enjoying their own private race more than 30 seconds behind the rest of the field, swapping positions four times in two laps. Sainz blinked first, stopping for another set of softs on Lap 20. Alonso followed him in later, although Aston Martin decided to retire the car. Antonelli reached the Alpine of Colapinto in ninth on Lap 23 as he tried to limit the damage to his championship lead, with his teammate now more than nine seconds ahead of Piastri in second. Hadjar attacked Verstappen at Turn 1 on Lap 27, only for Max to defend aggressively. Red Bull soon instructed Hadjar to hold position, seemingly unwilling to repeat the mistakes of previous teammate battles.

The race settled into a lull until Lap 30, when Norris suffered another lock-up at Turn 1, running long and losing places to Gasly and Antonelli. He recovered and crawled back onto the track in ninth, but it was becoming a weekend to forget for the reigning world champion. oments later, Albon locked up at Turn 3 and ended up in the barriers, triggering the safety car. game of chicken began as a red flag seemed inevitable, and nobody wanted to risk losing their free pit stop but after a lap the scramble began. Everyone on track other than Lawson and Hulkenberg pitted within the first two safety car laps and they followed suit shortly after when Albons car was cleared off the track.

The safety car came in at the end of Lap 35, with Russell weaving all the way down the main straight waiting until the pit entry before launching the restart. Verstappen immediately got ahead of Piastri.

Then the ‘Land of Fire’ lives up to its name as things started heating up.

A huge incident at Turn 1 involving Lawson, Norris and the two Alpines brought out another safety car. Colapinto made a huge, naive lunge and locked up, wiping out his teammate and Norris. Gasly and Norris retired, while Colapinto limped back to the pits. Lawson's incident was separate: he turned in on his teammate Lindblad who had nowhere to go after being squeezed by Ocon on the inside. The Haas cars emerged as the major beneficiaries, with both suddenly inside the points. Bortoleto was also caught in the chaos and dropped to 14th. Colapinto's damage proved too severe, forcing Alpine to retire the car. An awful weekend for Alpine after such a promising qualifying with a double-DNF and ending Gasly's remarkable run of 32 consecutive Alpine races without a DNF.

The second safety car came in at the end of Lap 38. This time Russell restarted cleanly, with Verstappen immediately breathing down his neck. The pair rapidly disappeared up the road.

McLaren’s nightmare continued on Lap 40 when Piastri locked up in turn 1 while defending from Hadjar and tumbled out of the points. amilton used all his experience to hold off the rapidly advancing Antonelli, but the young Italian eventually made the pass into Lap 43.

Verstappen kept reminding Russell he was there, attacking at the main straight on every lap, even drawing the attention of Race Control after appearing close to overtaking under safety-car conditions. No investigation followed. On Lap 46, however, Max brushed the wall at the entrance of Turn 16, costing him valuable time dropping out of the DRS range (yes, I refuse to call it whatever it is now).

Down the field, Lindblad produced the move of the race, bravely diving down the inside of Turn 3 to pass Bearman for eighth. Sainz then sneaked past Hulkenberg into Turn 1 on Lap 49 to gain the final point position for Audi.

Onto the final lap and chaos ensued yet again. Bottas hit the barrier at Turn 15, briefly producing double yellows and slowing the leaders. Verstappen was close enough to make Russell sweat chasing him all the way down the 2.2km main straight, but the Mercedes held on to win by less than two tenths of a second.

There were still battles all the way to the flag. Hamilton couldn't quite catch Antonelli for fifth, while Lindblad snatched seventh from Ocon on the line in one of the most exciting final-lap scraps of the season.

Russell took victory, Verstappen second and Hadjar third for his third career podium. It was Red Bull's first double podium since China 2022.

The final order was Russell, Verstappen, Hadjar, Leclerc, Antonelli, Hamilton, Lindblad, Ocon, Bearman and Sainz, followed by Hulkenberg, Lawson, Bortoleto, Piastri and Perez. Bottas, Colapinto, Gasly, Norris, Albon, Alonso and Stroll all retired.

Yet the biggest talking point after the flag may be the safety car that never came. With Bottas sitting in the barrier at Turn 15, serious questions will be asked about why Race Control allowed the race to continue.