'Mr Saturday' Russell 'comes through other side after real tough period'

For George Russell, this one felt like vindication, proof that he had "come through the other side" and was back to his best after what he acknowledged was a "real tough period" during this Formula 1 season.

The Mercedes driver's victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, holding off Red Bull's Max Verstappen in one of the closest finishes in history, was his first since the end of June - seven races ago.

In that time, team-mate Kimi Antonelli has won three times, to take his tally of victories to eight for the season.

So Russell needed this, his third victory, in a year that he started as championship favourite. Instead, Antonelli has taken the season by the throat and all but crushed the life out of Russell's hopes.

Now, though, a glimmer of hope still exists for Russell, even if he is too realistic to think too much about it for now.

His win, combined with Antonelli's fifth place after what the Italian admitted was his "worst weekend of the year in terms of performance", has cut the points gap between them to 66.

That's still huge, with either seven or eight races still to go, and 25 points for a win. But it's a lot better than the 81-point margin Russell faced before Baku.

"My team-mate's had an incredible season," Russell said. "He's been pretty flawless throughout, but now we're getting to crunch time.

"But I'm just going to focus on myself. You know, if I continue delivering performances like I've done this weekend, no matter what happens towards the end of the season, I'll be happy."

With the grand prix brought forward 24 hours from the usual Sunday slot, it was an appropriate result for a man whose prowess in qualifying has earned him the nickname 'Mr Saturday'.

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Russell has been through the mill in 2026. He dominated the intra-team battle last year, but the tables have turned dramatically this season, as Antonelli felt immediately at home in the new Mercedes after the biggest rule changes in F1 history, and the Briton very much did not.

For Russell, the blows have kept coming. Every apparent revival was met with another setback. Every time he felt he had made progress, Antonelli's apparently effortless way of extracting that little bit more from the car chastened him.

No experience was more painful than the Italian Grand Prix at Monza two races ago, when Russell started from the front row, and Antonelli 19th after a grid penalty.

Russell knew it was a golden opportunity to make up ground. Instead, it was Antonelli who won the race, with what will go down as one of the greatest drives in history. Russell looked on the verge of tears after that one.

But he kept the belief, and in Baku it all came together.

Antonelli 'wasn't really present'

Russell was a man on a mission all weekend, fastest from the moment he took to the track, while Antonelli, after losing half the two hours of practice on the first day, lost his cool.

He made a mistake in qualifying, took a wheel off on an inside wall, and started 16th. There was to be no repeat of Monza, even if fifth was a very creditable comeback result.

"I felt always a step behind," Antonelli said, "and especially with the mistake in qualifying the confidence level was not high and today was about damage limitation.

"Just probably also the mindset was not in the best place. I wasn't there. I wasn't really present, especially with what happened so early on and just didn't take the same risks, especially after qualifying.

"Today was more damage-safe mode instead of full attack. I just make sure next weekend we get back in the right level."

If he does, this will go down as a blip in an otherwise stunningly impressive breakthrough season by a potential future great. But the parallels with last year are unavoidable.

In 2025, McLaren's Oscar Piastri arrived in Azerbaijan apparently in control of the championship, and possessing a big lead over team-mate Lando Norris, albeit less than half what Antonelli's is now.

But Piastri had some kind of meltdown on the streets of Baku, what he described after arriving back in the city this week as "the worst race of my career".

And after that, the wheels came off for the Australian, and he was overtaken by the end of the year not only by Norris, but also by Verstappen.

There is no reason to believe Antonelli will suffer the same fate. But he still has something to process in the few days before taking to the track again in Malaysia on Friday.