George Russell says his Formula 1 title strategy is now simple: win every remaining race. The Mercedes driver left the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with his first career Grand Slam and reduced Kimi Antonelli’s championship advantage to 66 points after a commanding weekend in Baku.
George Russell controlled much of the Azerbaijan GP before having to withstand late pressure from Max Verstappen, completing a weekend in which he took pole position, won the race, led every lap and set the fastest lap. The result gave George Russell 25 valuable championship points and, just as importantly, renewed confidence after what he described as a particularly difficult period.
George Russell cuts Kimi Antonelli’s lead to 66 points
Kimi Antonelli’s qualifying mistake opened an important opportunity for his Mercedes team-mate, but George Russell still had to maximise it. With a highly competitive W17 underneath him, the Briton emerged as the strongest driver of the weekend and converted pole into victory.
His first Formula 1 Grand Slam has reduced the deficit to Kimi Antonelli to 66 points. It remains a substantial margin, and George Russell also knows that he is expected to take a grid penalty later in the season when Mercedes introduces his fifth engine.
That makes the challenge particularly difficult, but George Russell has no intention of changing his approach while the title remains mathematically possible. He had already acknowledged the scale of Kimi Antonelli’s championship advantage before Baku, but his victory has brought the gap down significantly.
Russell: ‘I have to win every race’
“What do I need for the title? To win every race. Basically, that’s the plan,” George Russell said after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. “Kimi Antonelli has had an incredible season. He has been practically faultless throughout the championship, but now we’re entering the crucial phase. I’m just going to focus on myself.”
For George Russell, the Baku result was also significant beyond the championship mathematics. After struggling through a difficult phase of the season, the Mercedes driver believes the Azerbaijan weekend showed that he has finally moved beyond it.
“If I keep getting results like this weekend, whatever happens towards the end of the season, I’ll be happy,” George Russell added. “It has been a really tough period for me, and now I feel like I’ve come through it.”
Max Verstappen was Russell’s only serious Baku threat
Only Max Verstappen, driving the upgraded Red Bull, was able to put George Russell under sustained pressure during the race.
George Russell repeatedly protected himself by producing an excellent middle sector, building roughly a one-second cushion before the long flat-out run towards Turn 1. That margin prevented Max Verstappen from mounting a serious attack for much of the race and allowed George Russell to keep control at the front.
The victory completed a remarkable turnaround from qualifying to race and strengthened George Russell’s position in the Formula 1 drivers’ standings. The 66-point deficit to Kimi Antonelli remains large, and the upcoming engine penalty will complicate the task further, but George Russell’s objective could hardly be clearer: keep winning and see where the championship stands when the season reaches its decisive final races.
The scale of George Russell’s Baku performance was already evident when he secured a dominant Azerbaijan GP pole position, and the race completed his strongest weekend of the 2026 season so far.
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