George Russell recorded his third victory of the Formula 1 season after completing his dominance in Baku with a first place in the race. His teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli took advantage of his good speed and two safety cars to finish in fifth place and maintain his large lead in the standings.
Russell made a perfect start and defended his first position in qualifying, while behind him Oscar Piastre quickly overtook Charles Leclerc and took second place. The Ferrari driver was the biggest loser at the start, dropping three places in just a few laps, while Kimi Antonelli, further back in the standings, was struggling to break into the top ten.
After 14 laps, Russell led Piastre by seven seconds, but the latter had a different battle as Max Verstappen closed behind him and looked faster on the longest straight in the championship. Isaac Hajjar was fourth behind his Red Bull teammate and led by over two seconds from Leclerc, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton. Kimi Antonelli, meanwhile, broke into the top 10 on lap 17 when he overtook Oliver Berman.
However, the degradation in Verstappen's medium-compound tyres became too great as the laps progressed and he lost pace, while the two drivers around him were on softs and were much faster. There was no overtaking for second place and so the first pit stops came. They started on lap 31 after Alex Albon crashed and when everyone changed, there was no change in the standings, but this time Verstappen got the softs against Piastre's mediums.
Alben's impact thickened the column again, and Verstappen came out in second place already in turn number 1 and chased Russell. Behind them, however, there was a massive crash, after the two Alpine cars crashed into each other and together sent world champion Lando Norris into the barriers. This brought out the safety car again.
After the new restart, Russell retained his first place against Verstappen, and the problems were again for McLaren. At the end of the first lap, Piastre missed the stop at Turn 1 and went off the track, completing a nightmare weekend for the world constructors' champions.
Verstappen stayed close behind Russell in the remaining laps, but was unable to overtake the Mercedes driver and finished in second place, while Hajar secured a double podium for Red Bull with third place. Leclerc finished fourth, with Kimi Antonelli behind him to overtake Lewis Hamilton for fifth place.
The Italian added ten points to his tally and now has 302, while Russell has 236 ahead of next week's race in Malaysia.