It’s extremely rare that a driver’s victory margin is greater than their pole margin.
That’s the challenge Max Verstappen took to George Russell in a high-pressure 12-lap sprint after a pair of safety cars shuffled the race.
When their high-stakes, high-speed duel was done, just 0.196s separated them at the chequered flag.
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It’s the 10th narrowest margin in the history of Formula 1, safety car finishes excluded.
It’s only the third time this millennium that a race has been decided by less than 0.2s
The previous smallest margin belongs to Rubens Barrichello, who defeated Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher at the 2002 United States Grand Prix by 0.011s — though that result was influenced by Schumacher attempting to orchestrate a dead heat from the lead.
Prior to that was the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix — though that result was artificially narrowed by Barrichello controversially acquiescing on the last lap to a team order to let Schumacher win.
Before that? The 2000 Canadian Grand Prix, where Schumacher fairly and squarely beat Barrichello by 0.174s.
The closest ever finish, for reference, was Peter Gethin’s defeat of Ronnie Peterson at the 1971 Italian Grand Prix by just 0.01s.
But this isn’t the sort of history Russell is pursuing.
After an utterly dominant victory, his eyes have returned to F1’s biggest prize.
“Love getting taken out by my teammate!” | 00:24
RUSSELL GETS HIS BREAKTHROUGH AFTER 2026 RULES STRUGGLE
“It feels great, to be honest,” Russell enthused.
So it should.
This was the Briton’s first grand chelem, or grand slam — victory from pole after leading every lap and setting the fastest lap of the race.
It’s a rare achievement. Only 28 drivers before him have ever managed one — almost all of them world champions — and no-one has more than Jim Clark’s eight.
“To achieve it on a circuit that requires so much commitment and confidence, I’m really proud,” he said.
Russell has been telling us for the last four races that he’s turned a corner this season, even as he’s continued to be outqualified and outscored by teammate and title leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
But here was tangible proof that he’s been telling the truth all along.
Though the scale of his domination was embellished by qualifying mistakes by Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Verstappen and others, there’s no doubting Russell was the form driver of the weekend, and by a considerable margin.
As one of the highest profile strugglers to adapt to these regulations, that’s a huge result — and one that might hearten some of his fellow travellers to have been put off by the new rules, like Oscar Piastri.
“I’m very proud of the resilience that I and 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,” he said.
“F1 is so tough. You don’t get opportunities to practice this, and finally it’s coming to me a bit more intuitively than it once did, 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.
“I never lost that faith in myself, even through a tough moment.
“It wasn’t like I just suddenly forgot how to drive, and I knew I would be able to find it again. I just had to be patient.
“I feel confident. It’s been four races since the break. I’ve been on the front row in three of them, three podiums from the four races. I feel I can fight for victory week in, week out now.”
Hadjar re-signs ahead of F1 return | 01:22
IS THE CHAMPIONSHIP BACK ON?
Russell’s comments would beg the obvious title question if he didn’t already give us the answer pre-emptively, even if attempting to be indirect about it.
“My teammate’s had an incredible season,” he said before the podium ceremony. “He’s been pretty flawless throughout, but now we’re getting to crunch time…”
The implication was clear, and he didn’t shy away from it in the later press conference.
“There’s much less pressure on me than there is him,” he said.
“I didn’t really consider myself in this fight for a number of races, purely because my performance wasn’t strong enough.
“Now I feel like if the season were to have started today, or since the summer break, I very much would have been able to fight.
“Now I’ve got this big deficit. It can change quick. So I’m not chasing that. I’m chasing to win every race, and what will be, will be.”
All this just a fortnight after Russell declared his championship hopes over in Madrid.
Has the situation changed that much?
The maths has budged in his favour, but only slightly.
Before Baku, he needed to outscore Antonelli by 9.0 points per round to overhaul him. That figure has come down to 8.25 points per round — assuming the Middle Eastern rounds aren’t cancelled. If we swap Qatar and Abu Dhabi for Imola instead, the margin moves back out to 9.4 points per round.
It’s an improbable gap that would allow Antonelli to finish second to Russell at every grand prix and still seal the deal.
But pressure works in mysterious ways. Antonelli is only 20 years old and in only his second season in Formula 1. He will have an experience deficit at most of the remaining circuits. He’s up against a driver who feels he has nothing to lose.
“I think this weekend taught me a lot,” Antonelli said after recovering to fifth. “I think in many occasions this weekend I just probably also with the mindset was not in the best place.
“I’ll just make sure that next weekend we get back at the right level.”
It’s too soon to say the championship fight is back on, but Russell has suddenly decided he won’t die wondering.
F1 stars set to race in Bathurst?! | 03:54
NORRIS CALLS FOR COLAPINTO RACE BAN AFTER TURN 1 CRASH
Lando Norris wasn’t at the races on Saturday — but even what was shaping up to be an anonymous middling points finish would have been better than ending up crashed out of the grand prix in a first-turn pile-up.
Norris was attempting to gain two positions at the safety car restart from the outside line, but Franco Colapinto, who had restarted behind him, had other ideas.
The Argentine targeted the turn 1 apex but then disastrously overcommitted on the brakes. He thumped into teammate Pierre Gasly, who then skittled Norris, and all three were out of the race.
Norris ended the day scoreless for the first time since June’s Monaco Grand Prix, and when Piastri ended up out of the points in events stemming from the ensuing second safety car, McLaren ended up with its first scoreless weekend of the season.
At the end of a miserable day, the reigning world champion chose violence.
He said that the crash was caused by “some drivers that shouldn’t be in Formula 1” and then called for Colapinto to be barred from entering the next race.
“I think the FIA should be more strict and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff,” he said, per Racer. “It’s just careless from people. It costs a lot of money. All my parts are in the bin now.
“People should just get banned, because that’s not driving that deserves to be in Formula 1.”
Colapinto owned up to causing the crash and apologised profusely, putting it down to his tyre and brakes being too cold to pull off the move.
Norris didn’t buy it.
“In Formula 1 I think you expect drivers to anticipate things, to know grip is going to be low, know the tyre temps are low — they weren’t even that low.
“When you’re in Formula 1, you want to be against the best drivers in the world, and when stuff like this happens, it’s because he shouldn’t be there.
“If you cause a crash on a restart like this, you should have at least a one-race ban.”
Asked about Norris’s commentary, Colapinto refused to bite — though he did remember to apologise.
“Sorry to Lando as well — I also took him out, not only Pierre,” he said. “It’s a big mistake of course. I just locked up and then I was very out of control; I couldn’t do a lot.”
The stewards issued him a 10s penalty, which has been converted into a five-place grid drop for next weekend’s grand prix in Malaysia.
The stewards have the power to issue a race ban, though it’s an extremely rare punishment.
Interesting to note is that the last ban dished out was to Romain Grosjean in 2012 for causing a first-turn pile-up at the Belgian Grand Prix.
He was slapped with a ban partly in recognition of his reputation for causing crashes — Mark Webber infamously described him as a “first lap nutcase” — which in turn played a role in the FIA coming up with a penalty points system that automatically handed out bans to repeat offenders.
Kevin Magnussen became the first driver banned by penalty points in 2024.
Colapinto was not handed any penalty points for the crash. He currently has three on his licence.
Next week’s drivers briefing will be fascinating.
2027 Aussie Grand Prix gets sprint race | 01:29
WAS THIS A GOOD OR BAD WEEKEND FOR PIASTRI?
Norris’s DNF was compounded for McLaren by Piastri’s mistake, leaving McLaren with nothing to show for the upgrade package it brought to this weekend’s race.
In fact both drivers ultimately undid their afternoons with similar lock-ups at turn 1 — Norris had already dropped a swag of places to such a mistake but was less sternly punished for it because the field hadn’t been bunched up behind the safety car.
But it was particularly frustrating for Piastri all the same during what was his most competitive weekend in arguably months, keeping the much faster Red Bull Racing cars at bay for most of the race.
“It was a bit weird,” Piastri reflected. “I didn’t think I did anything spectacular. Obviously I was on a different line to what I normally would be, defending. I don’t know if I got a crown in the road or something. It certainly was a surprise to me.
“It would have been interesting to see if I could’ve kept Hadjar behind. It would’ve been tough. It’s hard to tell on the medium, because they were pretty heavily flat-spotted, but I didn’t feel anywhere near as good on the medium as I did on the soft.
“I think potentially we could’ve been P4, but it’s one thing saying we could’ve been and another where we actually finished.”
But in pursuit of a positive takeaway, Piastri did say that he felt he’d made progress with the car in Baku — a much needed result, even without the points, after an anonymous weekend last time out in Madrid.
“I think in general I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve been more comfortable, but I’ve been able to get more lap time out of the car,” he said.
“I’ve been able to understand which direction I need to go in with my driving especially.
“Apart from one moment in the race, I felt like it’s been a weekend much more at the level I expect of myself.
“From that side, things have been much more encouraging; it’s just pretty painful to not have anything to show for it.”
But arguably the biggest result for Piastri is the context. Norris lost points to Antonelli, putting his already long-shot championship hopes surely out of reach. The question of team orders and driver status is probably extinguished for this year.
That takes off some of the pressure to urgently find a breakthrough — and with Russell showing drivers with this sort of driving style can overcome their problems, the outlook for Piastri looks most positive despite the non-result in Baku.
CARNAGE as Max takes on 100 drivers | 02:04
THE LOGIC BEHIND RED BULL RACING’S MESSY TEAM ORDERS
For the first time in what feels like living memory, Verstappen was challenged by his teammate directly on track.
Even more remarkable was that, for a period of time, Verstappen was the slower driver.
Isack Hadjar was quicker than him.
It put Red Bull Racing in a painfully awkward situation.
Verstappen recovered from eighth to fourth behind Hadjar in just six laps, and almost reflexively the team issued the order for the Dutchman to be let through.
Only a few laps later, though, and Verstappen was radioing that his medium tyres were no good. Hadjar on his softs, meanwhile, was coming alive.
For a moment Red Bull Racing appeared to ask Hadjar if he thought he could go quicker if he was let back into third place to challenge Piastri — effectively whether he wanted the team order reversed.
He said he could go quicker — and then remarkably told the team not to swap him.
It wasn’t until several laps later, as Verstappen’s pace continued dropping, that he began to hint and then tell the team to reverse positions.
By then, though, the moment had gone.
“We looked at all the scenarios honestly and we elected to hold the cars in that position, and both drivers have been very good at being disciplined with that,” Laurent Mekies told Sky Sports.
He was allowed to battle for the place — but around this track and against Verstappen? Fat chance.
But Hadjar explained after the race that his decision not to push for team orders in his favour was calculated for the bigger picture.
“In the first place I should have never been overtaken, because I had the better tyres, and once they switched on, I was sitting behind but I knew I had the better grip,” he said, but then added: “I was honestly fine with it.
“I knew it wouldn’t change my race because anyway he was going to finish the race on the soft tyres, so for me I knew at this point third was my target. Piastri was the man to beat for me, and I’m satisfied like that.”
Because Red Bull Racing split tyre strategies, had Hadjar been ahead at the safety car, he would’ve ended up as a roadblock for Verstappen and probably would’ve allowed Russell to build a buffer after the restart. Verstappen’s tyres would’ve been ruined.
That Hadjar had the foresight to see that play out is a testament to his potential alongside Verstappen.