George Russell delivered the most dominant performance of his career to win in Azerbaijan – and then told world championship rival Kimi Antonelli: “The pressure is all on you”.
Russell effectively raised the white flag after the last round in Madrid where Antonelli claimed his eighth victory of the year to extend his title advantage to 81 points.
But the British driver has been a man inspired on the streets of Baku, charging to pole position before navigating his way through two safety car periods, and holding off Max Verstappen by just one tenth of a second – Formula One’s closest finish in a quarter of a century – to take his third win of the campaign and his first since the Austrian Grand Prix, 90 days ago.
It was damage limitation for Antonelli after his crash in qualifying left him 16th on the grid. He fought back to fifth, allowing Russell to trim his lead to 66 points with 208 still to play for across the remaining eight rounds.
Antonelli conceded afterwards that he drove “like my grandmother”. And Russell, when asked if he now can start to apply the pressure on his younger Mercedes team-mate, replied: “Yes, for sure. There’s much less pressure on me than there is on him.
“The game plan is to win every race. My team-mate has had an incredible season. He has been flawless, but now we are getting to crunch time.”
Russell began the year as the championship favourite, but he has struggled to get on top of a Mercedes which has played more to Antonelli’s style behind the wheel.
However, Russell’s outing on the Caspian Sea will provide him with renewed belief that he is finally at one with his machinery.
Russell mastered the initial start, two safety car getaways, and Verstappen ominously swamping his mirrors for the concluding 13 laps.
A yellow flag at the last corner of the last lap allowed Verstappen to latch onto the back of Russell’s Silver Arrows. A drag contest followed with Russell the victor by only 0.1 sec in the closest F1 finale since Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello staged a Ferrari ‘photo-finish’ at Indianapolis in 2002.
Russell continued: “I never lost that faith in myself. Even through the tough moments I knew there were reasons. It was not like I had forgotten how to drive.
“I knew I could find the performance, I just had to be patient. And now I feel I can fight for victory week in, week out. It was the most dominant weekend I have had in my career.
“I didn’t really consider myself in this (championship) fight for a number of races, purely because my performance was not strong enough.
“Now, I feel if the season started today, I would very much be able to fight. I have got this big deficit. But it can change quickly. I am not chasing that. I am chasing a win at every race. And what will be, will be.”
Antonelli might have delivered a comeback for the ages after driving from 19th to win in Monza earlier this month, but that was never on the cards here.
His afternoon was aided by two safety cars. The first arrived when Alex Albon ended up in the wall at turn 5. Both Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris were then taken out of the fixture by a wild Franco Colapinto at the restart.
A second safety car was required to deal with the carnage and Oscar Piastri ran off the road, elevating Antonelli another place. Antonelli swatted Lewis Hamilton to one side for fifth, but with Charles Leclerc 3.5 sec up the road, he failed to make any further inroads.
Antonelli remains firmly in control of the title race, but Russell has at least provided him with food for thought ahead of next week’s round in Malaysia.
“I was driving a bit like my grandmother today,” admitted Antonelli, 20.
“I was taking no risks and making sure what I did was done without damage. It was about saving points. But it wasn’t the usual Kimi. I was only at 80 per cent.”
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