George Russell has explained how he resisted Max Verstappen’s intense late pressure to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, revealing that the Red Bull driver was gaining almost four tenths of a second per lap from the slipstream on Baku’s long final straight. Yet the decisive factor in Mercedes’ victory came elsewhere: through the technical sections where its rivals had hoped to expose the W17.
Russell spent the final 10 laps effectively driving a sequence of qualifying laps after the Safety Car gave Max Verstappen another chance to attack. The Mercedes driver ultimately won by just 0.196 seconds, but the tiny margin at the chequered flag does not fully reflect where the race was decided.
George Russell drove ‘qualifying laps’ to resist Max Verstappen
“I could feel him breathing down my neck. Suddenly it was like I had to do qualifying laps, one after another,” George Russell said. “The pace was so high, we were gaining a second a lap on everyone else.”
Mercedes had been the dominant force throughout the Baku weekend, with the W17 leading both qualifying and race-pace indicators before the Grand Prix. Even so, George Russell had already identified Max Verstappen as the most dangerous threat after qualifying.
Max Verstappen had started only eighth following an engine problem that had probably cost him a place on the front row. The Safety Car, however, transformed the situation and brought the Red Bull driver back into contention for victory.
Mercedes had already recognised Red Bull as a potential threat during the first part of the race. When the Red Bulls moved back into position behind Oscar Piastri, George Russell suddenly increased his pace to create a safety margin. After the neutralisation, there was no longer any opportunity to manage the gap.
Instead, George Russell had to produce an exceptional rhythm without making the slightest mistake.
Max Verstappen gained almost four tenths from Baku slipstream
With only a handful of laps remaining, George Russell and Max Verstappen could afford to push the Soft tyres extremely hard. The clearest indication of the pace at the front was the gap to Isack Hadjar, who lost around seven seconds to the leading pair in only 10 laps.
For George Russell, pushing at that level was necessary because Max Verstappen had an additional weapon: the slipstream.
Had both cars been running in clean air, Mercedes would have been able to pull away. Max Verstappen instead adopted the same aggressive approach that had worked for him at Monza: remain close, increase the pressure and then exploit the tow along Baku’s huge final straight.
That slipstream was worth just under four tenths of a second every lap.
It sounds like a straightforward tactic, but executing it was much more difficult. Max Verstappen first had to remain close enough through Baku’s technical sections to benefit from the tow when the circuit opened onto the long straight.
Mercedes rebuilt its advantage through Baku’s first two sectors
Because Max Verstappen repeatedly recovered time on the straight, George Russell had to rebuild his advantage on every lap through the first two sectors. That is where Mercedes laid the foundations for victory.
Throughout 2026, the W17 has regularly demonstrated excellent traction and an ability to transfer power efficiently to the track, particularly on circuits featuring repeated low-speed acceleration zones. The strength of the overall package has already made Mercedes the benchmark of the current Formula 1 season.
What made the Baku performance particularly significant was that Mercedes has not introduced a major upgrade for some time. Rival teams had hoped the second sector and the Castle section would provide an opportunity to recover the time they were losing elsewhere.
That expectation explains why Charles Leclerc was more concerned by the tenths Ferrari lost in the technical section than by the eight-tenth qualifying deficit itself. The assumption had been that Mercedes’ main advantage would come from power and straight-line performance.
Instead, George Russell was repeatedly creating the decisive gap through the corners.
Andrea Stella says Mercedes strength is the complete package
Mercedes did make some adjustments during the closing stages, changing its maps to provide additional electrical deployment during the first part of the lap. Max Verstappen was also dealing with the effects of dirty air while following closely.
But neither factor fully explains the advantage George Russell was able to build through the middle sector.
It reinforced the point made by Andrea Stella during the Baku weekend: Mercedes’ advantage comes from the complete package, rather than simply from its power unit.
Baku’s characteristics also helped George Russell exploit his own driving style. Its sharp, angular corners do not allow drivers to cut aggressively into the entry phase, and that suited the British driver even on a low-grip circuit.
None of that made resisting Max Verstappen’s pressure straightforward, particularly once the race entered its dramatic final lap.
Why the 0.196-second winning margin is misleading
Valtteri Bottas’s accident brought out yellow flags late on the final lap, forcing the leaders to slow through one of the circuit’s more demanding sections. That area is also crucial because it determines the exit and momentum required to build a strong tow towards Baku’s long final straight.
The data showed George Russell lifting considerably more than Max Verstappen in order to avoid taking any risk.
That produced two separate consequences. First, Max Verstappen recovered around half a second in that section by braking later and carrying more speed through the double-yellow zone, effectively halving the gap he would normally have had at that point on the circuit.
The second consequence was more technically significant.
Russell reached Turn 16 18 km/h slower after yellow flags
Because of the characteristics of the 2026 power units, slowing down so significantly meant George Russell did not have the turbo fully prepared when he accelerated again. That also changed the way the Mercedes could use its electrical energy.
By the braking zone for Turn 16, the final corner before the long flat-out section, George Russell was travelling 18 km/h slower than Max Verstappen.
Fortunately for the Mercedes driver, it was the final lap. That meant he could completely deploy the remaining battery energy to the finish without having to consider what would be available on the following tour.
Had the same situation occurred one lap earlier, George Russell would have needed to manage enough electrical energy for another complete lap, potentially creating a very different conclusion to the race.
Mercedes wins Baku where rivals hoped it would be vulnerable
The final margin of 0.196 seconds therefore tells only part of the story. Max Verstappen’s slipstream and the unusual final-lap yellow-flag sequence brought the Red Bull extremely close to the Mercedes at the finish.
For most of the closing battle, however, George Russell had repeatedly rebuilt his advantage through the first and second sectors before Max Verstappen recovered almost four tenths on the straight.
That is arguably the most significant message from Mercedes’ Baku victory. Its rivals arrived believing the technical section could be used to compensate for the W17’s power and efficiency advantage. Instead, it became the part of the circuit where George Russell repeatedly created the margin that kept Max Verstappen behind.
The result underlined why the latest Mercedes performances increasingly point towards a car with very few obvious weaknesses: in Azerbaijan, the W17 did not merely win where everyone expected it to be strong. It won the race in the part of the circuit where its rivals had hoped to beat it.
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